cutting off the snake's head

What is it that U.S. and other power bases do not understand?


Around the world, one "dictator" or another, one "insurgent" leader or another, one "bad man" or another is cloaked by the U.S. et all in the glory of being the villain du jour.

Then he is assassinated or dies and the U.S. or other governmental entities crow, "Cut off the head and the snake will die."

And once the snake's purported head is in fact cut off ... the mission, the cause and the blood-letting persists.

Does this not suggest that another approach might be more effective? If you don't ask what it is that someone wants/needs and why they want it and then attempt to address those wants/needs, is killing them the answer to the question? It all feels like the exasperated parent who snaps at a reluctant child, "Shut up and eat your spinach!" Yes, there are "terrorists" with violence-laced, disproportionate and pig-headed demands -- who are dying to die -- but is it true that none of their goals/demands is within the realm of human sanity? I find that hard to believe.

A U.S.-backed action in the Philippines -- how wonderful it's not the Middle East for once, right? -- brought all this to mind.

Marwan seems to deserve a round of U.S. applause: It was he, among others, who allowed America to march resolutely towards a goal of allowing war to distract from more complex issues at home ... that and, as an adjunct, keeping the electorate in thrall to the fear of snakes.