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Mar 15, 2004 Lately I have heard a number of pundits from all parts of the political spectrum ‘pundating’ on a certain paradox that, they posit, could lead to our President’s downfall in November. The Paradox of the War on Terror goes something like this: The more successful we are in fighting Terror, the fewer attacks that happen, the less it is in the public’s face, the less people think about it, and the less important it might become in the election (to the determent of GW’s re- election chances). On the other hand, the less successful the War on Terror (i.e., God forbid, another attack were to be successfully carried out in our country), the more it will hurt President Bush’s perceived ability to direct our antiterrorism efforts, the less likely will be his re-election. As a staunch Conservative, the implications of this theory bother me. Obviously, the way out of this particular paradox is to remind the public that we are still at war and that we are winning with the current leadership. Regardless… Let me very briefly propose the Terrorists’ Paradox as an accompanying theory to the one above. Terrorists face much the same problem in attacking us as we do in maintaining the public’s will to fight them. Specifically, the more successful they are in killing innocent people, the more they draw the public’s ire, the more strongly President Bush (and other world leaders) can hunt them down, the shorter their potential lifespan, and most importantly the fewer innocent people get killed. On the other hand, the less successful the terrorists are in carrying out attacks, the longer their lifespan, but the less likely they are to be able to convince the bad guys with money to fund their (in)activity, and the fewer innocent people get killed. While the Terrorists’ Paradox does not necessarily help us fight Terror in a direct way, I hope that it does give people a bit of encouragement where there may seem to be very little at times. We are engaged in a struggle to the death with people who would more than gladly die themselves in the act of killing us. Worse yet, they are faceless and most likely living among us as we speak. But take heart, remember that they are struggling to succeed against a People who may at times bend, but will not break. Although they may not realize it yet, these Terrorists who hide their faces and dedicate themselves to hurting innocent human beings have bitten off more than they can chew. Toby Keith put it best in ‘Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue’ when he said, “This big dog with fight when you rattle his cage…We’ll stick a boot up your ass, it’s the American way.” The evil ones cannot win because they are fighting not just America, they are fighting Americans. ------------ About the author: Tom is a conservative medical student in liberal New England who probably spends too much time paying attention to politics and never lacks topics for friendly discussions. Email Thomas Carroll: carroll@student.uchc.edu Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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