From Doug to Carrol:
>Let me see if I have your position right. The official story is a
>"simple lie" - told on behalf of what, an oil pipeline? The War on
>Drugs? There's nothing any popular movement can do to stop the
>deaths of tens of thousands. But, nonetheless, "we," whoever we are,
>should try to build an antiwar movement through day-to-day,
>one-on-one conversation whose content is that al Qaeda isn't guilty,
>that no one will listen to "us," that there's no point in putting
>forward a just and decent response to S11, and there's nothing that
>a peace movement can do anyway. Sign me up!
>
>Doug
Well, I've explained my position at length -- in case the post didn't go through, here it is:
At 9:21 AM -0400 10/17/01, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
Those who commandeered the airliners to attack the WTC and the Pentagon are obviously *dead*, so the Anglo-American bombs can't touch them. Al Qaeda may or may not have master-minded them -- we don't know, since the U.S. government *refuses* to disclose publicly whatever evidence it has. Nevertheless, let's suppose Al Qaeda is responsible for the attacks, for the sake of an argument. According to the U.S. government, Jane's Intelligence Review (at <http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jir/jir010726_1_n.shtml>), and other sources, Al Qaeda is a *transnational* network, so the Anglo-American bombs & commandos in Afghanistan can only touch those members of Al Qaeda who are dumb enough to remain in the country even after weeks of American threats. The U.S. government, however, is making alliances with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and other nations which have "harbored" parts of the Al Qaeda network. If the Anglo-American war on Afghanistan kills any member of Al Qaeda, it will do so only accidentally; if anything, the war will help Al Qaeda & other networks of fundamentalists recruit new and committed members. That suits the U.S. government fine, though, for the "war on terrorism," like the "war on drugs," is just a rhetoric. The U.S. government have & will commit terrors, train terrorists, & support terrorist networks when they are useful to it. The present war -- whose main casualties will be civilians in Afghanistan, U.N. workers clearing land-mines, Red-Cross workers, etc. -- is being waged to manage the fallouts of neoliberal capitalism (e.g., failed or failing states on the periphery) through the expansion of Empire, restore confidence in U.S. military might (shaken by the successful bombing of the Pentagon), etc.
Got any problem with the above?
-- Yoshie
* Calendar of Anti-War Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Anti-War Organizing in Columbus Covered by the Media: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/media.html>