Note to the "ladder of force left"

[H. Curtiss Leung]

When faced with a gung-ho hawk, I've made the same argument, but with
a straight face:  "You know, you're absolutely right--we've got to get in
there and get rid of all the scum, every last one of them.  Absolutely.
Genocide is the answer."  (I'm not, Not, NOT saying Max is a gung-ho
hawk but just using your comments to him as a departure point).  To a
man (and they are all men), they soften and then respond, "But we got
to do *something!"  At which I usually advance my domestic-focus
option.  But now that the FBI is thinking torture--well, every position
is awful.  There is no way out of it.
--
Curtiss

Carl wrote:


> No, I don't think mere candy-ass "brutality" solves a thing, Max; it just
> feeds resentments and causes countermeasures.  The only violence that
> *really* solves problems is wholesale slaughter, ideally genocide.  Think
of
> cleanup operations on a Biblical scale, e.g.:  "Now go and smite Amalek,
and
> utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man
> and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." (Samuel
15:3)
> The aim is to leave any gasping remnants of the enemy population
completely
> demoralized and impoverished, not planning revenge or having the means to
> exact it.
>
> *That's* when violence works, and I don't think you want that.