>And the partisans of the cops-and-courts approach, among whom I
>number myself, apparently haven't thought through just how you go
>about "bringing them to justice" - when the them in question could
>be thousands of heavily armed, well-hidden fanatics who will fight
>to the death.
Nearly all the people in the world, including Americans, tolerate the existence of the U.S. armed forces stationed not just on the U.S. soil but in many parts of the world -- the standing army of volunteers (a big no-no for Renaissance humanists!), heavily armed & willing to fight to the death, with poor records when it comes to observance of human rights, laws of warfare, and so on; the CIA; the armed forces, mercenaries, death squads, etc. in the rest of the world, a lot of them aided & abetted by American politicians; etc. However, American leftists, for the most part, seem content with "doing nothing" about them, as it is impossible to abolish them overnight, & no American leftist is calling for the use of "considerable force" to bring American war criminals (current & former presidents, congresspersons, generals, etc.) to justice. Why is that? Are lives of civilians in the USA worth more than those in the rest of the world?
>And, yes, a long-term "solution" requires the U.S. transform its
>Middle East policies dramatically - which is a polite way of
>describing a substantial retreat from its empire. Absolutely right
>and just, but that's serious stuff, and I don't think a lot of
>lefties urging that have thought through just how profound and
>difficult a struggle that will be.
Well, most of us have, believe it or not. You might trust anti-imperialists, for a change.
-- 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>