I didn't think that I would write a diary on this, but...
On "The View" today, Joy Behar opened up a discussion on the Ron Paul/Rudy dust-up at the debate. She asked whether Americans consider, as Paul had said, what American policies actually are in the Middle East and how we may create blowback based on our actions, not based on who we are. She then called out Guiliani for his ownership of 9/11, and for his response to Paul which completely twisted what Paul had said into a "blame America" mantra. She reminded Rudy that he doesn't own 9/11, and many have suffered. She asked about the Shah of Iran, the Saudi government, and what have we done over there? In essence, our hands are not clean. Rosie then brought up the 655,000 civilians now dead in Iraq since our invasion and how can that be accounted for? Why have those Iraquis died? Continued...
It went on, tag-teamed between Joy and Rosie - what if there's another attack, what rights will be taken away then? Is "terrorism" actually everywhere, so it makes no sense to single out any country (e.g. Iraq). The counterpoint to all of this was co-host Elizabeth, who kept injecting "terrorist!" into the discussion, implying that it's a totally inchoate force, that can never be rationally understood, so it must be destroyed.
Here's what was interesting to me: the audience clearly GOT what Joy had started out with, which was that Ron Paul was identifying "policy" choices made by the U.S. that help to account for the low esteem that we are held in by many in the Middle East. Everytime, the boogie-man of "terrorist" was raised in an uncritical manner, the audience was nearly silent.
This was an unexpected political sophistication to find on a morning chat show, illlustrating that "9/11" and "terrorist" no longer intimidate people into rank submission out of paralyzing fear. I also read the audience reaction to mean that people have been told many lies over these last few years, and are developing a deep skepticism over "war on terror" that promises endless conflict for a nation that can do no wrong.
Props to Joy Behar (and Rosie, also) for using her TV time to take on some of the deepest mythology over terrorism, standing up to the constant "9/11" baiting and staring it down. What makes me hopeful, today, is that the audience was right with her.