Today's politicians rely on scare tactics and are either frighteningly ignorant or are deliberately lying to the public about an imagined enemy, said a former CIA agent who gave a lecture at ASU Thursday.
Michael Scheuer, an expert on terrorism and the retired head of the CIA's bin Laden unit, spoke to a crowd of more than 300 at ASU's College of Law Great Hall.
The speech, "Two Steps Toward Hell: The Scare-Mongers, The Caliphate, and Islamofascism," chastised politicians for painting an inaccurate portrait of the war in Iraq and of the U.S. enemy.
Scheuer further described U.S. foreign policy as un-relentlessly racist and said it is based on a foe that doesn't exist and is unlikely to ever exist.
"This is a neat and tidy intellectual package," he said. "But one that is wrong on almost every count. It is a useful piece of slight of hand."
He said he thinks both Republicans and Democrats are engaged in a deliberate attempt to portray Islamic people as fascists.
"This is a tool for silencing domestic political debate," he added.
Scheuer said citizens' patriotism is gauged by their willingness to buy into the stereotypes fed to them by the government, and criticism of our foreign policy amounts to a form of treason.
He disagreed with nearly every presidential candidate, with the exception of Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and said we are not engaged, as most politicians assert, in a "war of ideas" with the Islam world.
"There is no war of ideas," he said. "There is only a war of harshly conflicting interests. We are at war because of what the U.S. government does in the Islamic world. There is nothing abstract about it."
ASU graduate Brandon Hendrickson said he appreciated Scheuer's candor.
"Muslims hate us, because we bomb Muslims," Hendrickson said. "Everyone wants to say it's because they hate freedom, but they hate us because we bomb them. [Scheuer] is rooted in reality."
Scheuer said the only solution to the current situation is an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. He also said we need to find a way to lessen our dependency on the region's oil.
"The only chance we have of defeating this enemy is through a disengagement from the Middle East," he added. "And the absolute beginning of wisdom is oil. If we can do something about oil, then we can stop supporting tyranny in the Middle East."
Reach the reporter at: sarah.g.owen@asu.edu.
