Still Blogging About Anachronisms, Autocrats, and America

My eldest daughter recently asked me if I was writing for Another War-on-Terror Blog any more. If you follow this blog (thank you!), you've noticed that posts are few and far between: particularly compared to a few years ago.

About Interest: Mine and Yours

It's not that I've lost interest. I'm still following what I think may be the major conflict of the 21st century. I still think that the efforts of a few folks to impose their anachronistic views on everybody else are a real threat. Not just a threat to America: Outfits like Al Qaeda have a distressing habit of killing folks who don't dress the 'right' way, or who simply get in the way.

On the other hand, I don't think I'd be doing anyone a favor by spouting off about every event and personality connected with the war on terror. I've posted 1,410 times so far, this one will make it 1,411: and who's going to have time to read all that? Or be interested??

Autocrats in the Information Age

I'm optimistic about the eventual outcome of the war on terror. Al Qaeda and others who desperately want to live in what seems to be an imagined past where their foibles were accommodated face a terrible obstacle. It's not the armed might of the United States, or United Nations resolutions. Most people simply don't like being killed at the whim of their ruler.

Folks in Afghanistan don't seem to have enjoyed having their lives run by the Taliban.

Iraq's citizens didn't like Saddam Hussein, but cooperated in their country's defense. They cooperated with Al Qadea in Iraq, too: until they noticed that the 'lions of Islam' were killing their neighbors for trivial reasons, while the foreign devils were rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure and making progress at stopping the aforementioned lions from killing their neighbors. That's when the Anbar Awakening happened.

Over-simplified? Yes. But I think there's a pattern here. Folks in places like the Middle East put up with remarkably brutal and incompetent leadership, until they learn about what's happened in the last thousand years or so in places like Europe.

The last I heard, old-school autocrats were still killing their subjects in an effort to instill loyalty. And failing.

Why the American Emphasis?

If you've read more than a few posts, you'll have noticed that:

• I
  • Am an American citizen
    • Who prefers living here
  • Think that America isn't
    • perfect
    • The source of all ickiness
  • Think that
    • Freedom is precious
    • War isn't nice
    • War may be preferable to the alternatives
• This blog
  • Is written from my point of view
  • Is not
    • Chauvinistically 'pro-American'
    • A screed against
      • Yankee imperialism
      • Western oppression
      • Fluoridated water

"Fluoridated water?!" I remember the 'good old days,' when the establishment was mostly conservative and nearly all Anglo-American: and never want to go back. And that's almost another topic.

So, why the American emphasis?

As an American citizen, I tend to notice what's happening in this country: and pay attention, since there's always an election coming up. More topics.

I think that America is one of the few countries that's able to deal with terrorists: and one of a handful that's willing to do so. Just as important, American leaders are often able to encourage other national leaders to form coalitions.

'Wouldn't It be Nice - - -?'

As I've said before, I don't think war is nice. Things get broken, people get killed. But we don't live in a 'nice' world.

Someday we may have a global authority that's able to deal with threats to the common good. Maybe even without using force. I don't think that's going to happen any time soon.

Until we've got something like Tennyson's "parliament of man ... federation of the world," we'll have to muddle along with coalitions operating under United Nations mandates.

And I'll be writing posts from time to time, about what I think are interesting or major developments in the war on terror.

Somewhat-related posts:

• "Beer, Basketball, the War on Terror, Today's News, and Me"
  (March 10, 2011)
• "Blogs, Freedom of Speech, and Threats to the Status Quo"
  (July 31, 2010)
• "No More 'War on Terror' - Officially?"
  (March 30, 2009)
• "Castro, Cuba, Guevara, Traditional Gatekeepers, and the Information Age"
  (January 30, 2009)
• In another blog
  • "9/11, Just War, and 'Death to Mickey Mouse' "
    A Catholic Citizen in America (September 11, 2011)
  • " 'Just War:' Unpleasant, but Not a Contradiction in Terms"
    A Catholic Citizen in America (March 22, 2011)