Shane says:
> > - -The Taliban/Al Qaeda operation is not a sovereign state or nation
> > - -The Taliban/Al Qaeda operation is a piratical gang
> > - -Pirates are, by definition, enemies of the human race and to be
> > treated as such
> > - -It is the duty of all to crush them
I have nothing to say to him _here_; in this context, I am interested in antiwar discussion.
>>--
>Curtiss asks:
>
>PS. Regarding Caesar and Augustine on pirates, I'd like a gloss offlist.
>
>
Augustine tells the story of a pirate brought before the Emperor (Alexander?), who asks him (the pirate), "How dare you molest the seas!" The pirate, figuring that he's toast anyway, asks the Emperor, "How dare you molest the Earth?" Augustine makes the point that piracy on a big enough scale is international politics. This is a thesis that has been developed mpore recenbtly into a social scientific thesis by Charles Tilly. See his War-Making and State-Making as Organized Crime. The Caesar ref that Shane invokes I don't get. Pompey, Caesar's rival, cleared the Mediterranean of pirates.
jks
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