Schneier on Security

A Telco Security Dweeb • January 15, 2010 8:12 AM

Yes, but any HONEST analysis of why Muslims hate America so much (e.g. “no questions asked” support of anything and everything that Israel does, support of Muslim dictatorships like Egypt and Saudi Arabia combined with transparently hypocritical denouncements of other ones like Syria, nonsense posturing like “rigged elections in Iran are ‘bad’ but rigged elections in our puppet government in Afghanistan are “good”, illegal invasions and continuing, brutal occupations of both Iraq and Afghanistan, allowing Blackwater mercenaries to murder Muslim civilians with no consequences whatsoever, “rendition” of innocent Muslims to torture dungeons around the world, the Guantanamo Gulag, Abu Ghraib, a foreign policy largely targeted at endless supplies of oil so you can drive nice big SUVs, and cavalier disregard for the lives of Third World civilians like Afghans at wedding celebrations), is completely prohibited in the “echo chamber” of the self-congratulatory American mainstream media.

It is so bad that although I still watch ABC, CBS, NBC, etc., I have to watch the BBC to get any real news… the above kinds of subjects are quickly shut down by hysterical attacks on the part of the Cheney / Palin / Fox News crowd. The mainstream U.S. media is so intimidated that it dares not talk honestly about why there is an endless supply of Bin Ladens, Achmediniwhatsisnames and shoe bombers.

If you are to do an HONEST risk analysis you have to address “where is the risk coming from and how do I minimize that factor”. If you are fundamentally unwilling to deal objectively with that factor you are making the entire idea of risk analysis, completely pointless.

Would fixing all these problems make America 100% safe from terrorism? No. Would it eliminate 90% of the threat? Yes. It’s not that you can’t do it. It’s that you don’t WANT to do it, because you want that cheap oil, so much more.

There are REASONS why Muslims hate America (not Switzerland — despite the minaret issue) and why they are targeting the U.S., as opposed to, (say), New Zealand or Brazil. I have just given you a whole bunch, above, but your political class dares not talk about them.

A Telco Security Dweeb • January 15, 2010 10:06 AM

Incidentally (to all the other commenters who have made the following point), I would be the last to deny that there are reasons (e.g. the Wahabi cult, the Sunni / Shia feud, religious fanaticism, the ‘blame somebody else for my problems so I don’t have to face up to them myself’ syndrome, poverty, ignorance, etc…. the list goes on and on) that would motivate terrorists to attack (a) the United States and (b) much of the rest of the developed world, even if by some miracle the U.S. et. al. started to behave responsibly.

Nobody is saying that Muslims in the rest of the world are perfect (they’re very far from it) or that they would necessarily react rationally to reasonable actions or policies on the part of the U.S. or other Western countries. (Indeed, the past history of the Israel / Palestinian situation – where you have acts of terrorism launched by Islamicist rejectionists, precisely to STOP the outbreak of meaningful compromise – shows how difficult the process is likely to be.)

All I am really suggesting is that in order to mitigate a risk, the first logical thing that one has to do, is, “not make it worse”. We do this all the time, in everyday life; for example, if I don’t want to be beaten up by a gang of {your favorite ethnic group here}, I refrain from running up and down a street in their neighborhood, yelling “YOU STUPID {name of ethnic group}”.

Why, then, is it a good idea to go all over the rest of the world, needlessly antagonizing people and inducing them to attack me? I can’t fathom what the U.S. thinks that it’s accomplishing here.

“To avoid being eaten by a tiger, lesson #1 : ‘stay out of its cage, and don’t tweak its nose’.”

A Telco Security Dweeb • January 15, 2010 1:41 PM

@ John :

“…once we march an army in there {to your country, when we unilaterally decide that it ‘needs invasion’} we’re keeping it. It baffles me that the US didn’t invade Iraq and start setting up permanent military control…”

The breathtaking “might makes right” arrogance of this statement nicely illustrates why much of the rest of the world hates Americans — or, at least, the Cheney / Palin / Fox News variety of American.

What “baffles” me is how you can say things like this without asking yourself, “how would I feel, if someone was advocating the invasion, devastation and semi-permanent occupation of MY country, just because the occupier wanted cheap access to MY natural resources?” Why is it OK for the U.S. to routinely do this to other countries, but not the other way around?

The problem for all the rest of the people in the U.S. is that from an outside POV, because the United States is a sovereign nation, we cannot differentiate between “nice” Americans like Obama and “bad” Americans like Cheney : we have little choice but to hold ALL Americans accountable for the actions taken in their name, by their leaders.

And I would ask the other posters in this forum; do “John’s” comments sound like “risk mitigation”, to you?

With attitudes like the above proudly on display, Al-Qaeda hardly needs to print propaganda. All it needs to do is do a screen scrape.

A Telco Security Dweeb • January 16, 2010 9:34 AM

One of the most depressing thing about these types of discussions is how members of the American ideological Right (you know who you are), love to attack a “straw man” caricature of someone else’s postings, as an unconvincing way of refusing to address or debate the real issues.

Nobody – least of all myself – is trying to argue that the world’s Muslims are all rational, sophisticated people who you’d like to invite to your auntie’s tea party. Nor are we advocating “giving in to terrorism” (or capitulating to every demand, reasonable or otherwise, that Muslims or any other Third World group, advocates).

There ARE small groups of fanatically committed Islamicist jihadists in various places who, indeed, cannot be reasoned with. But they are a tiny minority of the larger Muslim community. Judging all Muslims, anywhere, everywhere, by the actions of groups like Al-Qaeda is a crude form of ethnic prejudice that frankly bewilders me.

It is also ridiculous hyperbole to suggest that Muslims don’t have ANY legitimate grievances against the West, or that the West’s past treatment of them has been so 100% perfect, so kind, wonderful and indulgent, that the ONLY reason that (a tiny number) of Muslims engage in acts of terrorism, is, “they’re just crazy, dreaming of 72 houris and all the wine you can drink, the second after they set off that belt of C-4”.

This is the kind of self-serving rationalization of one’s own actions, that I would have expected to hear coming from (say) a Bosnian Serb, not someone in a supposedly sophisticated democracy like the United States.

If I am to understand some of the other posters correctly, they are basically saying that the West can (and should) do anything it wants to Muslim countries (or to Muslim minorities in places like Palestine), and then should simply dismiss any complaints forthcoming from that as from “a bunch of terrorists who can’t be reasoned with, ever”.

By this logic, the U.S. should (presumably) bomb and invade Iran and maybe Pakistan, Egypt, Somalia and Yemen as well, simply ignoring any whining on the part of the natives, who “deserve to be invaded”. Then, if something “bad” happens later, just tell the world that “all this terrorism has nothing to do with our track record, it’s just Muslims who wake up every morning and resolve to hate America, for no reaso whatsoever other than they’re ‘fanatics'”.

(Note to self : Isn’t the U.S. Army already a bit short of soldiers, as it is? Cruise missiles and Predator drones can’t occupy territory or pump it dry of oil, you know.)

Well, go on thinking like that, mate, and see what you get. Just do the rest of us a favor, make sure you tell the heathens that you’re over there, representing only yourself.