CONFRONTING THE TERRORIST WITHIN

TruthDig offers "Confronting the Terrorist Within" by Chris Hedges. Chris is always provocative and informed. He now writes regularly for TruthDig.

Excerpt 1: The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, when viewed from the receiving end, are state-sponsored acts of terrorism. These wars defy every ethical and legal code that seek to determine when a nation can wage war, from Just War Theory to the statutes of international law largely put into place by the United States after World War II. These wars are criminal wars of aggression. They have left hundreds of thousands of people, who never took up arms against us, dead and seen millions driven from their homes.

Excerpt 2: Barack Obama’s decision to increase troop levels in Afghanistan and leave behind tens of thousands of soldiers and Marines in Iraq—he promises only to withdraw combat brigades—is a failure to rescue us from the status of a rogue nation. It codifies Bush’s "war on terror."

Excerpt 3: The dark motivations of Islamic extremists mirror our own.

Excerpt 4: The vain effort to purify the world through force is always self-defeating. Those who insist that the world can be molded into their vision are the most susceptible to violence as antidote. The more uncertainty, fear and reality impinge on this utopian vision, the more strident, absolutist and aggressive are those who call for the eradication of "the enemy."

Excerpt 5: The world is far more complex than our childish vision of good and evil. We as a nation and a culture have no monopoly on virtue. We carry within us the same propensities for terror as those we oppose.

Excerpt 6: Those who externalize evil and seek to eradicate that evil through violence lose touch with their own humanity and the humanity of others. They cannot make moral distinctions. They are blind to their own moral corruption.

I guess you can see what I mean when I say provocative. But, as I also said, he is informed. So we should not, indeed must not, ignore his analysis and insights. Our global policy needs to change. Chris Hedges should be taken seriously. Obama promises to listen to many points of view. I hope he listens to this one.