A bold statement, but little is to be lost by bravado. One more drop is unlikely to cause the bucket of extremist outrage to overflow, though we have been living for years in a state of surface tension.
But is it true?
In America, we have guns and butter, technology and with it convenience, genius, but because of it, lethargy.
Americans can be riled for a cause, and perhaps Obama’s presidency will move us beyond the jaded self-interest of Bush’s last term, but can we be as devoted as religious martyrs? As desperate for success?
As driven by revenge?
Americans are well-fed (perhaps overly so), have longer life-spans, suffer primarily from self-afflicted rather than natural maladies: heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes, stress. Even the more endemic of diseases, such as cancer, most traditional cultures don’t live to see. It is no lie, then, to say that as a people we are more vital than the impoverished, habitually mis or uninformed peoples who are raised, on promise of security and paradise, into the culture of terrorism.
But stronger?
Jets and tanks may make us more able, losing proportionately less warriors in every fight. But would we ever allow the proportionate loss that they encourage?
Globalization may make our ideals more widespread and our overall society more resilient, incorporating the best ideas into our pre-existing framework and discarding the rest. But do we have the convictions of ignorance or religious dogma?
We have our advantages, but against guerilla warfare I contend that though we may have strength of arms and currency (for now), if strength of spirit IS critical, then the harder we crush our self-declared foes, the more passionate they will become.
I very much hope that it is not critical, that we are more resilient and that we can once and for all devise a strategy for routing terrorism, but I fail to see our advantage in this situation (and that is perhaps why we needed Presidential comforting at all).
Matthew on 2009.02.24
Of course this is a statement to the American people to show his (and American’s) strength and conviction in fighting/defeating an enemy, but you can also look at it this way:
I think this statement has more to do with the long-term. America will not be destroyed or broken, we will outlast you kind of thing. We may not have the passion of our enemy, necessarily, but hopefully our spirit is too strong for them to break. We will not simply give up and let them win.