the armor of the body politic
November 19, 2013 6:49 PM Subscribe
"The American homeland is the planet" Not content with a militarized southern border, the U.S. is now militarizing borders around the world (slsa)
It's not really the case that most borders wouldn't be militarized if it were not for the US. I mean, the Dominican Republic and Haiti are fairly different and opposed and stuck on the same island. Israel would have border problems even if America didn't sell them border things. The US-Canada border is special, and the other peaceful borders that exist amongst countries which are actually peaceful: those are the special ones. As long as the nation-state is a thing, territorial sovereignty will be a great part of how one judges a nation-state, and border integrity is a big part of that.
posted by curuinor at 10:58 PM on November 19, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by curuinor at 10:58 PM on November 19, 2013 [2 favorites]
America's border fetish is so damn creepy. And of course they've monetized it. I wonder if the just barely concealed racism comes with these exported services, or if that has to be on site?
posted by From Bklyn at 11:11 PM on November 19, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by From Bklyn at 11:11 PM on November 19, 2013 [3 favorites]
Back in 2004, a single sentence in the 9/11 commission report caught this changing mood succinctly: “9/11 has taught us that terrorism against American interests ‘over there’ should be regarded just as we regard terrorism against Americans ‘over here.’ In this same sense the American homeland is the planet.”
But the following sentence from the 9/11 commission report is what really blew open the security floodgates:
"But the enemy is not just "terrorism", some generic evil. This vagueness blurs the strategy. The catastrophic threat at this moment in history is more specific. It is the threat posed by Islamic terrorism - especially the al Qaeda network, its affiliates, and its ideology." (emphasis in the original.)
The vagueness of taking the "threat" to America from al Qaeda - a specific Sunni Muslim group - and applying it broadly to include all of Islam, in particular Shia groups like Hezbollah, was where it all began to go wrong.
posted by three blind mice at 4:43 AM on November 20, 2013 [1 favorite]
But the following sentence from the 9/11 commission report is what really blew open the security floodgates:
"But the enemy is not just "terrorism", some generic evil. This vagueness blurs the strategy. The catastrophic threat at this moment in history is more specific. It is the threat posed by Islamic terrorism - especially the al Qaeda network, its affiliates, and its ideology." (emphasis in the original.)
The vagueness of taking the "threat" to America from al Qaeda - a specific Sunni Muslim group - and applying it broadly to include all of Islam, in particular Shia groups like Hezbollah, was where it all began to go wrong.
posted by three blind mice at 4:43 AM on November 20, 2013 [1 favorite]
The only way to stop terrorism is to end the reasons for terrorism.
One of the major reasons is shit like this.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:57 AM on November 20, 2013 [1 favorite]
One of the major reasons is shit like this.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:57 AM on November 20, 2013 [1 favorite]
Suggesting that the Dominican Republic's increasingly militarized border with Haiti is a product of American wishes to extend "Homeland Security" to protect against terrorism is pretty ridiculous. Conflict between Haiti and the DR goes back more than a hundred years and as the two countries have moved in opposite directions in terms of resources and prosperity, the desire by the DR to beef up their border is entirely motivated by internal DR concerns. As the article notes in passing, the Parsley Massacre was basically genocide by our old strongman ally Trujillo against Haitians and to this day descendants of Haitian immigrants born in the DR are quite literally second class citizens. Certainly, there are companies hoping to profit from this conflict between haves and have-nots and certainly the US government is eager to help the DR when asked, but to represent the changes at the border as a manifestation of US muscle flexing is to demonstrate a pretty confused understanding of the situation there. The DR is the most economically sucessful Caribbean island and our two governments have very close ties. A cynic might suggest that this is because when they were on the verge of forming a government without close ties to us in 1965, we invaded and occupied them until a more palatable alternative was found (Balaguer). Since Clinton finally pushed Belaguer out of office in 1996, the DR has really been a great model of democracy and economic success. Although they cannot point to their relations with Haiti as any kind of success story, I'm not sure they can really take the blame for the absolute disaster in every respect that is the economy, environment, and political state that exists there.
posted by Lame_username at 9:11 AM on November 20, 2013
posted by Lame_username at 9:11 AM on November 20, 2013
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posted by humanfont at 9:15 PM on November 19, 2013