That's It... That's the Ticket.....

Rudy Giuliani was adressing the Jewish Victory Coalition the other day. They are a pretty conservative group of Jewish Hawks, who generally speaking have little regard for Arabs of any nationality. One of his big applause lines:

You know, Israel’s not perfect, and America’s not perfect, but we’re not terrorist states...

I guess that is our story and we are sticking to it.

"Terrorist" is a very loaded word and I suppose if you define it to folks who conduct hijackings and wear ski masks, Rudi is probably right. If you expand the definition a few inches farther though, say to encompass folks who threaten the well being of civilian population by threat of arms, or hire and support people who threaten the safety and security of the civilian population, things do not look so cut and dry. It does not surprise me that, outside our own borders, there are many folks who look at the contras, our mainipulation of aid,napalm, the bombing of Cambodia, Abu Ghraib and Gitmo and do not find any meaningful distinction between us and those we oppose.

Additionally is not being a "terrorist nation" something to be all that proud of? Doesn't that set the bar kind of low? Isn't it kind of like saying, "yeah I cheated on my wife but I didn't get the clap." Shouldn't we endeavour to be a bit more than a dues paying member of the Non Terrorist Club?