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Friday, December 14, 2007

Of Mice and Men

When I read that Japanese scientists had bred fearless mice who would snuggle cats, I was not impressed. After all, we have bred pundits who have no fear of jihadis killing us. I noted Paul Krugman's misuse of FDR's quote already.

And now we have Bravely Brave Sir Zakaria, who bravely runs away:

Then came 9/11. Ever since the attacks, the United States has felt threatened and under siege and determined to carve out maximum room to maneuver. But where Americans have seen defensive behavior, the rest of the world has looked on and seen the most powerful nation in human history acting like a caged animal, lashing out at any and every constraint on its actions.

At the heart of this behavior is fear. Americans have become scared of the new world that is emerging around them. As long as this atmosphere of fear envelops U.S. politics, it will surely produce very similar results abroad. Washington's real task, therefore, is to combat such unthinking emotion.


We've lashed out unconstrained? That is a fascinating view point. It is laughable. Zakaria is horrified that we might fight Iran, writing "if it happened, it would be the third U.S. war against a Muslim country in seven years." So it's governing while Islamic or something? Religious profiling?

Sadly, a white protestant country hasn't threatened us lately. That three Moslem countries might be subjects of three wars in short order might just be because Moslem thug rulers have threatened us, no? And since the two we've gone to war with so far seem very happy that their former thug rulers are gone, might not Zakaria say we might liberate three Moslem countries in seven years? Really, don't non-Moslem countries deserve that sort of attention. Burma? Zimbabwe? Bueller? Anyone?

Somebody break it to George Clooney that we can't "do something" about Sudan since that would be a third war "against" Moslem countries in seven years. Sorry Darfur! Unless Ann Coulter succeeds in a mass Christianity conversion campaign in Khartoum, you guys are out of luck.

Zakaria is just bizarre. I've asked it before, but what planet is this man on?

And his idea that our fear of jihadis getting weapons of mass destruction or even just plane tickets and boxcutters means we are afraid of "the world" is ludicrous. It is dishonest. Yet it truly represents the breed of faux fearlessness that mistakes refusal to see enemies for bravery. Who has the unthinking emotion here? Ron Silver might have an answer for you.

So while a breed of fearless mice is a yawner given our breed of fearless sheep, I am impressed that South Koreans have developed glowing cats. Which is ahead of the curve for our jihadi enemies who still can only hope to nuke us until we glow.

Zakaria may think he's conquered unthinking emotion, but all he's done is suppress his survival instinct. In reality, he'll just be glow-in-the-dark cat food for a hungry predator. Remember, there is a good reason mice are supposed to fear cats.