> Unfortunately, this means there is no choice but
> to accept the Administration's policy for now.
You mean, Colin Powell's policy (the only intelligent man in this Administration, seems to me). If there is indeed solid evidence that al-Quaeda is responsible for S11 -- I suspect there is, otherwise the EU, Russia and China, powers which have formidable intelligence services indeed, wouldn't be going along with the bombing campaign -- then this needs to be a UN operation, with open Central Asian support, and with the same sort of goals as Vietnam's intervention in Cambodia to kick out the Khmer Rouge, i.e. restoring a semblance of sanity and long-term stability to the region. I'd like to see Operation Blue Helmet, i.e. a massive multinational search and seizure operation to track down the perpetrators. But what I see right now is an Oil Jihad, waged by dismally identical oiligarchs. Maybe this will change; maybe Powell knows what he's doing, after all, and the UN is just taking its time to gear up.
> I don't think I am more paranoid than the average
> person, but the week after 911 I tried (unsuccessfully,
> and w/o much effort) to buy a gas mask. When I hear
> sirens from my office (frequent), I wonder if something
> else has happened. When my daughter sneezes, I wonder
> if the plague has begun. I knew people (not close friends)
> who died on 911. I have close friends who came very close
> to getting killed.
The cruel, grievous reality is, US policies have wrought exactly this sort of violence on other countries for decades. The Israelis would say exactly the same thing about the Palestinians, who would say exactly the same thing about the Israelis, who would... etc. etc. etc. The terminus of the total system is total destruction. Against this, we have to start thinking, strategizing, mourning and resisting on a planetary level. When hundreds of thousands of children die of poverty in some Third World country thanks to insane policies cooked up by the IMF, we ought to be as terrified and saddened as watching jets taking out skyscrapers. The real Plague/Jihad/Terror is neoliberalism itself.
-- Dennis