Ok, so i've been almost living in the pharmacy at one of any of 3 CVS locations as of late, so of course I have not been keeping up with Jon Stewart's lovely political satire by any means. Today I caught an episode from the 9th when he interviewed Newt Gingrich: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-february-9-2010/newt-gingrich

For the most part, they were arguing about whether or not the current administration's decision to Mirandize suspected terrorists was radical or not. Jon called for trying terrorists not in military tribunals but in our own justice system-thus defining them in a "criminal context instead of a war context."He claimed that doing otherwise really" gives them more credibility and credence." Newt's response to this was that these terrorists are our "mortal enemies."

I found Newt's remark to be an excellent example of this crazy religiously polarizing rhetoric that some people have been using since 9/11 that actually does in fact give validation to this Jihadi mindset. Take for instance John McCain's quote(amusingly, also on the Jon Stewart show from May 19th) that "This is a transcendent evil that wants to destroy everything we stand for and believe in." ....I hope that people realize how ridiculous this sounds!!

By putting this conflict in these metaphysical terms we are in fact falling right into the hands of the Jihadists and getting ourselves wrapped up in what author and theologian, Reza Aslan, has dubbed a "Cosmic War" in which both sides claim to have God on their side in an epic struggle of good v. evil. Bush reaffirmed this by claiming that "Our responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil." I am a cynic is the most strict sense of the word, but c'mon, even the most idealistic person among us can easily see that this is an unwinable and unending battle.

As I've stated in a previous post, Jihadists, like al Qaeda, may go on and on about the actual, real greviances of their Islamic brothers and sisters...but they also offer no real solutions. As i've said, they talk quite a bit of the plight of the Palestinians, but of course establishing a Palestinian state is in direct conflict to al Qaeda's visions of a global Caliphate. Of course the plight of the Palestinians is a real issue that seriously needs to be addressed...and in doing this, we would take away one of al Qaeda's talking points/recruiting tools...which is how we win.

It is certainly a nice thought to think that one day the forces of good will defeat the forces of evil(however one wants to define good and evil and defeat). It will however not be done in the context of the War on Terror or Global Contingency Plan, or whatever they're calling it now. To continue put this conflict, (that is not even one conflict as much as it is many) into these religious terms is both dangerous- as it incites religious tensions- as well as utterly ridiculous...and I hope people will quickly reject this kind of vocabulary when they hear it in the future.