Note to the "ladder of force left"

Carl Remick carlremick at hotmail.com
Wed Oct 24 18:01:00 PDT 2001



>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>
>Carl Remick wrote:
>
>>>Like I've said many times, I oppose the current strategy. It kills
>>>and threatens lots of civilians, probably spares the actual perps,
>>>does little if anything to prevent future disasters, and makes us
>>>many enemies. I'd just like to make people realize that the no
>>>civilian death standard is impossible to meet anywhere but in
>>>fantasy. I'm not endorsing civilian death by saying that, either.
>>>
>>>Doug
>>
>>Yesterday upon the stair
>>I met a plan that wasn’t there.
>>It wasn’t there again today.
>>Oh how I wish it'd go away.
>
>Thanks for the poetic interlude. Do you have a no-civilian-death
>strategy you'd like to share with us, or did you just feel in a
>rhyming mood?
>
>Doug

Stop the bombing, for starters. I don't think it's possible to mix oil and water, and pursue a legal investigation -- gathering evidence that you can actually show the world, not just allude to -- at the same time we are waging a military campaign that seems destined to be a martyr mill.

While we are doing that investigation, we should seek, as the talking-heads say, to "drain the swamp" of deep-seated grievances toward the US that help breed terrorists. How's this for a gesture: cancel the billions of dollars of military aid that we give to Israel and Egypt and use it for humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. As a show of good faith, we might also (as I suggested once before) be willing to arrest Bush I, Clinton, Kissinger et al. and put them on trial as war criminals. It seems the least that B, C, K et al. can do in the service of their country, since they are not now risking their lives by opening their own mail. After all, war crimes charges would only be a nuisance suit for these notables, all of whom are quite adept at defending their records and should have no trouble doing so in a court of law.

Whether those particular suggestions are good isn't the point. There are countless other ways to build goodwill among the world's dispossessed while we, peacefully, marshall evidence against OBL.

Carl

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