"Part of the key is also to isolate the extremists who have been wreaking havoc around the world."
Obama made this an important point in a calling-all-Muslims speech in Cairo on the 4th. The first thing I thought was:
Oh, God. (...Is that an ironic word to come to mind? heh.)
We all know what HE means, or at least implies, when he talks extremism. And what he means is clear when he elucidates, continuing, "We simply want to make sure that our common enemies, which are extremists who would kill innocent civilians, that that kind of activity is stopped..." This sounds really really logical and helpful, all in all, right?
The thing about using such vague terms (e.g. extremists, enemies, activity) is that perpetrators can be defined based on whim... or all sorts of weird or corrupt ideological motivations, depending on who's doing the prosecuting. Also, the actions to be taken against "them" are used so loosely (e.g. want to make sure, stopped) that it's impossible to know what tactics will be used to off the behavior.
I also know this is a speech meant for laymen and moral boosting. There are just so many stories of a government pegging one group of people dangerous to society. I'm thinking specifically of the kind of rhetoric that allows for human rights violations under oppressive governments, though. Lines and definitions blur so profoundly. I highly highly highly doubt that Obama or his administration intends on whacking anybody just because they'd be politically inconvenient or anything like that... but it's the language of his speech that *really* made me raise an eyebrow.
I hope I'm being irrational!
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/22/obama.pakistan/index.html
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