GOP Brain-Worm

Here is a short, edited clip of General Wesley Clark trying to reason with a bunch of Faux news viewers concerning the Middle East, and to explain why “Kill them all and let God sort it out” isn’t necessarily a good policy position. I suppose he makes some headway. What is interesting about this clip is what the audience members say. Clark tries to explain why diplomacy and dialog with other countries is a good thing. But the audience keeps throwing up their hands in despair at ever being abl e to communicate with the people of Syria, or Lebanon, or Iran. “How do you negotiate with people who want to kill you?” seems to be the battle cry of everyone who is too lazy to do the hard work of talking with their fellow human beings, and would rather just shoot them, or bomb them, or drop white phosphorus (which creates burns which don’t stop burning, even on babies!) on them. How wonderful that this particular sentiment has embedded itself into the populace, and how convenient that it works in the favor of this administration.

The act of negotiation, which can be accomplished with 99.99% of the world’s population, requires a de facto humanizing of the people on the other side of the table. You must acknowledge them, you must listen to them, and you must try to think like them. You must try to understand them, and this is something that the Bush administration must not allow. And so “how do you talk to people who are (threatening us, terrorists, Muslims, brown-skinned, ‘crazy’[see Kim Jong Il], bent on destroying our way of life, etc.)” is tossed out into the public conversation, to show just how futile all that “talking” is anyway.

Better to just kill others. Kudos for Clark for trying to reason with the Faux news crowd.