Clumsy and ignorant over-reactions

Yesterday I wrote about the opinion of Fareed Zakaria that we are a lot safer than we think we are. My friend and debate partner takes strong objection to what I wrote.

The plain fact is that we are MUCH LESS SAFE now than we were after the attacks of 9/11/2001 and our ignorance of that makes us all the more unsafe. Three reasons; I'm sure there are more:

1) Through our clumsy and ignorant over-reactions, we have angered and alienated many, many people around the world. Many but not all of them are Islamic. This has swollen and motivated the ranks of the Muslim extremists who intend us harm. The fight is vastly bigger now than any terrorist group could have made it. We have demonstrated through repeated immorality -- think Abu Gharaib, 100,000+ Iraqis needlessly killed, acquiescence and participation in torture around the world, corruption among our puppet allies -- that are not worthy of respect. Instead, we seek to be feared and as a result are hated.

2) By sacrificing much of our freedom (but not yet all) and accepting many trappings of dictatorship -- torture, imposed searches, abuses of our Constitution, shabby judicial procedures for prisoners, propaganda, etc. -- we have a much weaker moral defense to support us than we had before. We feel and know our own culpability in this mess (see item 1) and this weakens our self-confidence and determination to resist. We are also much more internally divided than we were in 2001 and this division is growing.

3) These ultra-costly wars have taken a great toll on our economic resources as well, moving us all toward poverty and increasing our vulnerability to future troubles.

What a way to make a guy feel good!

In the parts of the article I didn't mention, Zakaria was mostly talking about Al Qaeda, which is much smaller and less powerless than 9 years ago. But, yeah, the title of his article implies we are much safer overall.

A large point of Zakaria's article was that we have, and are continuing to, overreact to the threat of Al Qaeda, which is similar to my friend's first point. I see the second and third points above fitting right in with the general plan of the conservatives to install themselves in power, regardless of the consequences.