Collegiate Times

White liberals are those who cannot see past their own imperial and white privileges, thus bounding themselves to forever replicate the exact same forms of hierarchy, exclusion, discrimination and violence that they proclaim to be against. They are normally white, upper middle class heterosexual men who place themselves in an unfair prized position through the power of self-serving assumptions, values and paradigms that historically owe their foundations to long dead white men. The fight for freedom carried out by white liberals then becomes nothing more than the fight for power and authority for themselves, at the expense of those who look differently.

Last Friday, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Political Science department, the public was treated to the "British Perspective" of security after 9/11 through a presentation by Tony McNulty who is a Virginia Tech alum from the class of 1982. McNulty, who is a member of parliament for the United Kingdom, is a very bright, likeable man with a charming smile. He was very talented at his ability to tell a few quips to make the audience chuckle and held onto many liberal and progressive beliefs.

More importantly he speaks the language of multiculturalism fluently. He reminded the audience that "islamofascism" is a worthless term, as Islam is not the enemy. Instead, the terrorist threat is best defined as a group of people willing to attack those of us with shared values and beliefs. With this definition he outflanks the voices of peace and brilliantly co-opts the language of the left while regurgitating the ideas of the right.

McNulty did not have to state what these shared values and beliefs were. As the lecture occurred at the Skelton Conference Center with a primarily white, middle class audience based in the western perspective, it's rather easy to predict how the audience would define what these shared values and beliefs are; namely freedom and democracy. Hence, McNulty's definition is only a stone's throw from President Bush's old, "they hate us for our freedom." McNulty's definition indirectly accomplishes the same goal of both self-validation as well as vilifying an enemy by fictionalizing it until we no longer need to study its motivations. As white liberals, we can simply use our imaginations to define what terrorists are as well as their motivations and agendas.

Analysts who have done their research studying terrorists will understand that the main motivating force is neither Islam nor a hatred of modernity and freedom. At the root of most violence directed against the west is anger at the violence we support and commit on other lands, primarily their own. In the larger picture imperialism is the main deterrent to peace, as the bombs in Baghdad will take more lives than the efforts of suicide bombers. Simply put, the easiest way to reduce terrorism is for the West to stop participating in it.

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