Fearing Fear Itself

Radley Balko | September 11, 2007

Colin Powell is sounding a lot like John Mueller or James Fallows these days. From a soon-to-be-released interview with GQ:

"What is the greatest threat facing us now? People will say it's terrorism. But are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves. So what is the great threat we are facing?"

We need more of this. It's a far sight removed from the Bush administration's M.O., which seems to be to hype the fear of another attack at every conceivable opportunity. Which of course is changing ourselves.

Also, some sensible words from Powell on immigration:

"America could not survive without immigration. Even the undocumented immigrants are contributing to our economy. That's the country my parents came to. That's the image we have to portray to the rest of the world: kind, generous, a nation of nations, touched by every nation, and we touch every nation in return. That's what people still want to believe about us. They still want to come here. We've lost a bit of the image, but we haven't lost the reality yet. And we can fix the image by reflecting a welcoming attitude -- and by not taking counsel of our fears and scaring ourselves to death that everybody coming in is going to blow up something. It ain't the case."

Comments

|9.11.07 @ 9:03AM|#

Fuck Powell. He was supposed to be the voice of reason in the W administration to keep the moonbats in their cages. Instead he toted water down to the UN for them. I'll never forgive him for that.

|9.11.07 @ 9:13AM|#

It's classic Greek tragedy, Warren.

He committed appalling acts, and caused his own doom and those of many other people, because he was torn by competing moral imperatives and chose poorly.

He wanted to be a good soldier. He wanted to serve the elected President of the United States, thereby serving his country.

|9.11.07 @ 9:14AM|#

I'm with Warren. I feel betrayed by Powell, and am surprised by how much it hurts.

|9.11.07 @ 9:15AM|#

He wanted to be a good soldier. He wanted to serve the elected President of the United States, thereby serving his country.

The guards at Auschwitz wanted to serve their country too.

|9.11.07 @ 9:19AM|#

Call me cynical, but Powell's newfound opposition to the Bush administration's Mideast policy comes off as mighty convenient.

But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves. So what is the great threat we are facing?

The relatively small stock of WMDs Iraq supposedly had wouldn't have been able to change us either. So why did Powell use them as an excuse to invade?

|9.11.07 @ 9:27AM|#

Actually, crimethink, that's a lousy example. The guards at Auschwitz wanted to wage the war on the Jews. They weren't soldiers given a job; they were volunteers, and the ones who objected were gladly sent into the combat arms with no loss of face or rank.

|9.11.07 @ 9:32AM|#

UH, we do allow immigration, just on our terms on the amount we let in. Why is this such a strange concept for so many?

Why are we the only country in the world that is expected to accept everyone and anyone who has a desire to be here, but doesn't have the consideration to it the legal way and instead cut to the front of the line?

|9.11.07 @ 9:34AM|#

Does anyone else think the 9-11 pity parties are going too far.As a country we've had our share of disasters through the years.We paused,dusted off and moved on.It seems we wallow in our own self pity.9-11 was terrible but not worse than the civil war,Pearl Harbor and the depression.We managed to put those behind use yet we still act like the world is ending.Not to mention Katrina,a disaster of our making. Are we so self involved that prior history doesn't exist?

Russ 2000|9.11.07 @ 9:36AM|#

A few months back The Atlantic had a long piece on Condi Rice. In the article Powell was quoted with roughly the tone - that terrorism isn't anywhere close to the military threat faced during the Cold War. And when I read it I felt the same way - it's sensible but why then was Powell echoing the neocon company line the whole time? Well, I guess being a military lifer he was going to follow orders. And obviously he quit because he couldn't follow those orders anymore. But damn I wish he would have made a big stink like this right after he resigned because now it has almost no impact.

stuartl|9.11.07 @ 9:43AM|#

Everyone on the red team looks like a loser. The blue team looks pretty bad too. Could he be thinking of a presidential run?

|9.11.07 @ 9:43AM|#

doubled,

What line?

A Mexican with no college degree wants to come here and work construction, or travel around picking lettuce. What line does he get in?

He's not cutting ahead of anyone, because THERE IS NO LINE TO CUT. That's the problem.

|9.11.07 @ 9:49AM|#

I think its a pretty bizarre stance Powell is taking here. Not that I disagree with the sentiment, but we happen to be very lucky that the terrorists who want to hurt us are complete and utter morons.

A dedicated group of smart people could go wild in a country where freedom of movement is as great as ours. Power plants, reservoirs, malls there would be no real impediment to killing huge numbers of people and destroying infrastructure quite easily.

The real thing to focus on is the fact that there simply aren't a great number of radicals in this country and the few there are happen to be complete imbeciles (eg: the resent abortive attacks on the fort in NJ and the airport)

MATDAMON|9.11.07 @ 9:56AM|#

He's not cutting ahead of anyone, because THERE IS NO LINE TO CUT. That's the problem

HE DOESN'T KNOW THAT, BECAUSE "DOUBLED" HAS A SPECIAL DEMAND KURV!!!!!! HE LEARNED IN EKONOMIKS 79

|9.11.07 @ 9:56AM|#

"Does anyone else think the 9-11 pity parties are going too far."

Michael
I'm right there with you. After the attacks on 9/11 I immediately said to myself that our liberties are going to be cast aside like George Costanza pushing kids out of the way to leave a burning house.

IMHO the terrorists have won, they got us to act just the way they wanted us to. Cowering, tails tucked between our legs, licking the boots of our oppressors.

|9.11.07 @ 9:59AM|#

I agree that he should have said some of this sooner, but the fact that he is saying it at all is a very good thing. A lot of people respect Colin Powell and listen to what he has to say. I can't think of anybody else (that would be likely to say these things) that would be taken as seriously by as many people as he will be for it.

|9.11.07 @ 10:12AM|#

""Does anyone else think the 9-11 pity parties are going too far.""

Yes.

Joe, I think doubled means the line crossing the Rio Grande at 3am. I keeed, I keed.

But it's not like these immigrants are going to round you up and stick you on a reservation in the middle of North Dakota. Most are not a threat to your job, unless you work at Burger King. As far as I can tell, they are a threat to those who collect welfare, which we shouldn't let non-residents get anyway. I'm not sure what the answers are, but building walls isn't one of them. Why should we be like Russia's East Germany or China? We claim to be a free society yet we are more and more adopting the tactics and ideologies of tyrants.

I'm not sure what the solution to illegal immigration, but it should be done with good ole American values at its base.

|9.11.07 @ 10:14AM|#

In re: 9/11 pity parties,

This morning my local wacky morning DJ (Curtis Sliwa) was lamenting the fact that the further you get from the NYC metro area, the fewer 9/11 memorial services and ceremonies are going on. He was furious that some town in NJ that had lost 37 people wasn't shutting downtheir town and holding a huge ceremony.

Because we need public grief! We need an altar upon which to offer ourselves to the cause!

carrick|9.11.07 @ 10:16AM|#

Terrorists are not trying to defeat an enemy army, which would be the classic definition of winning.

Instead, they are trying to provoke an emotional response in the population (fear, horror, hatred, etc) so that the enemy will defeat itself.

From a strictly cost/benefit analysis, terrorism is way more effective that invading another country.

|9.11.07 @ 10:18AM|#

I still Respect Powell. I do hold his UN presentation as a mark on his credibility, but he was suckered by the Bush admin just like many others. I too would have like to seen him take them to task when he realized what they got him to do. But, for better or worse, a lot of military people will not criticize a sitting President during war.

Russ 2000|9.11.07 @ 10:25AM|#

the civil war,Pearl Harbor and the depression.We managed to put those behind us

Are you kidding? We haven't put those behind us, those are constant themes on the campaign trail. Self-pity is the bread and butter of politics.

|9.11.07 @ 10:53AM|#

This morning my local wacky morning DJ (Curtis Sliwa)...

The Guardian Angels douche is now a radio DJ? I hope your use of "wacky" was ironic.

fyodor|9.11.07 @ 10:58AM|#

Are you kidding? We haven't put those behind us, those are constant themes on the campaign trail. Self-pity is the bread and butter of politics

Well there's different kinds of putting things behind you. I think the point is that in the not really all that long run, none of these things "changed everything" as people were saying 9-11 would. And the point is that 9-11 won't either, unless we let it.

|9.11.07 @ 11:18AM|#

well, he's wacky from my vantage point. But maybe not wacky like "Wild Willy the Weasel and the Morning Menagerie."

Sliwa does a show with a very ACLU-minded lawyer who defended one of the mafia guys who shot Sliwa. It's mildly entertaining for the 10 minutes I spend driving to work, I don't think I could take much more than that.

Russ 2000|9.11.07 @ 11:19AM|#

And the point is that 9-11 won't either, unless we let it.

True, but it already HAS changed everything. Because enough people WANT it to.

I agree we SHOULD forget 9/11. But we won't. And if you try to downplay the significance of 9/11, you must hate America.

|9.11.07 @ 11:26AM|#

It seems if,six years later,you don't shed enough tears,show enough grief,or are not willing to give up your rights your not showing the respect due the victims.

JBinMO|9.11.07 @ 11:44AM|#

What happened to "land of the free home of the brave"? We give up our liberties out of cowardess, they killed 3,000 people in a country of 300,000,000.

TLB|9.11.07 @ 12:05PM|#

Actually, if you're able to think it through, you'll see that Powell is less than "sensible". In fact, a quote like the second above reveals incompetence and raises the possibility that he's being paid to say that.

First, there are three things he's mashing all together into one: IllegalImmigration, the legal variety, and the difficulty legitimate visitors have of ObtainingVisas. Those are three entirely separate issues, but they're one in his mind.

Second, as a military planner he falls far short (and, if any Reason contributors ever meet him please do tell him I said that.) McCain admitted that MassiveIllegalImmigration forces us to choose between GivingAnAmnesty and FranceStyleRiots.

Colin Powell would subject the U.S. to the same horrific choice.

Once again, if any Reason contributors ever meet him, try to be as journalistic as you possibly can be and ask him a) who's paying your bills, and b) as a military commander how do you justify putting the U.S. in such a precarious position?

NP|9.11.07 @ 12:21PM|#

Radley is praising Powell for this kind of platitude?

|9.11.07 @ 12:41PM|#

First, there are three things he's mashing all together into one: IllegalImmigration, the legal variety, and the difficulty legitimate visitors have of ObtainingVisas. Those are three entirely separate issues, but they're one in his mind.

They are exactly one and the same issue.

We have illegal immigration, rather than the legal variety, because of the difficulty immigrants have obtaining visas.

|9.11.07 @ 1:25PM|#

He's not cutting ahead of anyone, because THERE IS NO LINE TO CUT. That's the problem.

Perhaps I am misinterpreting what you are saying... but why is it a problem that there is no line to cut?

We need someone to pick our lettuce and tommatos... no American is going to do it for minimum wage, and if we had to pay Americans $25 an hour to do it, then we couldn't afford lettuce or tommatos.

Or where you refering to the fact that there is no legal way for mexican workers to come to the U.S.?

|9.11.07 @ 1:26PM|#

Err, never mind joe, you answered the question in the time it took to write my post.

|9.11.07 @ 1:34PM|#

We need someone to pick our lettuce and tommatos... no American is going to do it for minimum wage, and if we had to pay Americans $25 an hour to do it, then we couldn't afford lettuce or tommatos.

Worse than not affording lettuce or tomatoes is the fact that the $25 per hour American must be pulled from some much higher valued job that is actually worth that high a wage.

Jennifer|9.11.07 @ 1:50PM|#

We have no victories to celebrate, so we make a fetish out of our defeats instead.

First, there are three things he's mashing all together into one

ShameOnHim for HavingTheGall to PlagiarizeYour WritingStyle.

Russ 2000|9.11.07 @ 1:51PM|#

the $25 per hour American must be pulled from some much higher valued job that is actually worth that high a wage.

If we redeployed the TSA employees out of the airports and out into the farm fields to plant and harvest crops, and paid them the same wage, the TSA would be empty in less than a month.

TLB|9.11.07 @ 2:48PM|#

Worse than not affording lettuce or tomatoes is the fact that the $25 per hour American must be pulled from some much higher valued job that is actually worth that high a wage.

Yes, like fixing the cotton gin or making sure that the molasses is coming along nicely.

Oh, sorry, I forgot what century this was.

[Confused little minds: no, I'm not comparing Mexicans being desperate enough to do stoop work 10 hours a day to slavery, only the mindset of those who have, throughout history, attempted to find the cheapest possible labor by any means necessary.]

And, needless to say, we are the ones who should decide who comes here, not those who are not here now. That would seem to be such a simple concept, but it's unfortunate that I have to point it out.

|9.11.07 @ 2:59PM|#

I was a bit taken aback by the comments attacking Powell for saying this. Yeah, the UN thing sucked, but Powell is making sense now. When someone influential that policymakers might listen to repents of their misdeeds and says something you agree with, is scratching out their eyes the rational response?

|9.11.07 @ 4:01PM|#

TLB,

You know what makes it really easy to get away with paying someone crap wages and treating him like a slave?

Forcing him to live as an outlaw, with no way of achieving legal status.

|9.11.07 @ 4:24PM|#

Can we get Powell in the Prezi race?

Two out of three candidates might be Black.

If we can make him Bloomberg-level rich between now the end of the year--after all, how long did it take to shovel a billion to the YouTube guys?--then he could self-finance.

People could remember him as the hero of Gulf War I and someone who tried to spit reason to the current crew.

And, if nothing else, it could fuck with the normal, boring-as-fuck, two party dynamics.

VM|9.11.07 @ 4:41PM|#

Wheeee
Wheeeeeeee
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