April 10, 2004
The Hostage Rorschach Test
The type of person you are determines the type of person you see....
The scattered violence in Iraq and news of mutlinational hostage taking is impacting in the news and public opinion, with threatening images and vile threats emerging from hooded Iraqi kidnappers.
Like a traditional Rorschach test, what you see depends on the kind of person you are.
In the picture linked above, some see the reason to leave Iraq, proof we are unwelcome, proof of enemy resolve, proof of nationalist outrage at the presence of an occupying power.
In the picture linked above, some see precisely the reason troops must stay.
Cowardice in the face of terror and thuggery creates the purest Pavlovian response from the perpetrators - more terror and thuggery. Which in turn creates the Pavlovian response from societies prone to diffident apprehension, and the cycle repeats itself.
If a nation and it's leader are prepared to see in the images an evil that needs confronting, terrorism can be defeated. If a nation and it's leader see in the images reasons not to act, they can be defeated by terrorism.
Posted by MEC2 at April 10, 2004 02:27 PM