Winnie the Pooh to shape US foreign policy under Obama?
In an article published in Monday's London Daily Telegraph, Richard Danzig, who was Secretary of the Navy in the Clinton administration and who is slated to be National Security Adviser should Democratic candidate Barack Hussein Obama - God forbid - win the election - said that America's approach to the 'war on terror' should be shaped by Winnie the Pooh: If it hurts, try something else. Mr Danzig told the Centre for New American Security: “Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security.”It is possible to defeat terrorism - look at our experience here in Israel with the IDF being in Judea and Samaria. No, it's not defeated entirely, but then you can't stop all crime either. Does that mean you stop trying?
He spelt out how American troops, spies and anti-terrorist officials could learn key lessons by understanding the desire of terrorists to emulate superheroes like Luke Skywalker, and the lust for violence of violent football fans.
Mr Danzig spelt out the need to change by reading a paragraph from chapter one of the children’s classic, which says: “Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming down stairs. But sometimes he thinks there really is another way if only he could stop bumping a minute and think about it.”
Mr Obama’s approach will be popular in Europe, where President George W. Bush has spent the week on a farewell tour, arriving in Britain yesterday for meetings with the Queen and Gordon Brown.
In a subtle break from Mr Bush’s belief that the war on terror can be won, Mr Danzig, who is a Pentagon adviser on bioterrorism, warned that while the West can defeat individual terrorist groups and plots, it can never entirely remove the threat posed by nuclear proliferation or the prospect of bioterrorism.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:36 PM
3 Comments:
Terrorism is a fact of life for Israel just as crime is fact of life for most nations. Its not going to be assuaged by kid gloves. It takes the iron fist to keep innocent civilians from being injured and killed. The Winnie the Pooh metaphor shows how out of touch the Obama campaign is with events in the real world. A man who believes terrorists deserve to be understood instead of fought is not fit to occupy the Oval Office.
we are so evereffingly doomed, carl. Sigh.
NormanF,
All true, but unfortunately, it's not just Obama. It's approximately half of the United States and much of Europe. It's probably also 30-40% of Israel. Our percentage is lower because we've been mugged too many times.
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