Codpiece Foreign Policy
Krugman wonders why Bush keeps referring to terrorists as cowards. After all, is it really cowardly to blow yourself up? No, it turns out that the cowardice label is really just a way for Bush to say terrorists are cowards because they won't fight in the open with him, and thus reaffirm his masculinity. Isn't that what his "bring 'em on" comments were all about? Another way of looking at it is to say that terrorists aren't playing fair. Both of these interpretations reveal a childlike insecurity towards violence that can't be fit into the after school junior high fistfight. If these terrorists were real men, the president seems to be saying, they wouldn't be cowardly blowing themselves up but fighting the US army directly. Isn't that what the "flypaper" strategy was supposed to do?
I could go on but the point remains that the president and his supporters have no understanding about the nature of terrorism, and cover up for that ignorance by responding in a fashion that is supposed to make them look tough and the terrorists look like wimps. Kinda explains a lot, doesn't it?