On Selective Pacifism & other Oddities

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Thu Nov 29 07:02:14 PST 2001


Michael Perelman wrote:


>I am skeptical about anything that I read now. If they are using
>leaderless resistence, ObL may not have known about the details; if he did
>the Taliban may not have known.
>
>I just don't know. Even if a few Taliban leaders knew, ....
>
>I just hope that you and I don't get bombed for the crap that our
>government pulls.

Yesterday, the Financial Times began a series investigating al Qaeda. Not much new in yesterday's installment - haven't gotten to today's yet - but it repeats the claim that 70,000 alums of al Q training camps are scattered across 50 countries. Maybe this is a complete crock, though the FT isn't exactly USA Today, and it doesn't make much sense for the newspaper of the international bourgeoisie to lie to its readers. But if anything like this is true, ObL & the Taliban certainly bear responsibility for their trainees, no? And insofar as they need coordination and finance for their bigger operations, someone other than the direct perps has to know, right?

And if anything like the 70,000 number is true - divide it by 5 if you want, and it's still a big number of people hellbent on destruction - what do you pacifists and fatalists and revolutionary defeatists suggest be done? Just let them be? Act nice? Invite them over for coffee?

Doug



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