African American Roundtable Discussion

Hear a great African American Roundtable Discussion from NPR's News and Notes program.

From Thursday, March 15th 2007

Guests discuss a new budget proposal from Senate Democrats, and the end of President Bush's Latin American trip. Joining the panel: political consultant Walter Fields; economist and author Julianne Malveaux; and Ron Christie, vice president of the lobbying firm D.C. Navigators.

LISTEN HERE

During the discussion, Bush & Co. stooge Ron Christie had the nerve to say that Terrorism had to be fought with military power. WHAT???



I wonder if this guy was dropped on his head too many times as a baby. Clearly he doesn't have a very good understanding of international affairs, or the military.

It has already been demonstrated (and I have stated it dozens of times) that military power is not the ideal mechanism for dealing with terrorism. IT DOESN'T WORK. Even American Generals recognize this fact. Using military power to fight terrorism is like using a gun to kill a fly. This solution does not fit the problem.

Terrorism has to be fought with a combination of economic power (using sanctions or economic power such as Trade as leverage), diplomatic skill, intelligence (human spies & other methods), information/communications, social & cultural exchange, political power and influence, aggressive covert operations when necessary to influence foreign politics and to remove threats, Homeland Security measures... reforming immigration and protecting your borders (work to keep bad guys out of your country), and limited military action or the threat thereof when you have Nation States that are openly assisting terrorists that threaten your country.
All of these concepts have to be used together effectively.

But military power, as a primary tool, is not very effective against terrorism.
We saw this recently in Lebanon, when Israel attempted to wipe out Hezbollah, only to end up strengthening the extremist group in the end. Other nations had to find a face saving negotiated settlement to end the carnage (which Israel was begging to get out of when it was all said and done).

The U.S.'s so-called "War On Terror", which rely's heavily on military power, has only created more terrorists and has sparked more terrorist attacks around the world. See an earlier report from April of 2006. In fact, there is an ocean of information on this...how could Ron Christie be that clueless? And this guy worked in the White House? (Additional Source shows Iraq War worsened Terrorism). (Back in 2005 it was clear that the military solution was only breeding more terrorists) (2) (3). I get so sick and tired of these Bush-ites spreading the lie that the military approach is working. Perhaps the "War on Terror" should be called the "War on Truth".

My suggestion to Mr. Christie would be to gain a better understanding of what's going on in the world before commenting about foreign policy. He could start by reading the following post- The War On Terror Explained.

Can someone please buy this man a clue?!!!

It's interesting that we always see people like Ron Christie on the major news programs, passing themselves off as experts on politics or foreign policy, when they really don't know much of anything about these subjects. Yet they get to have a national audience.

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Howard Zinn War Is Not A Solution for Terrorism