Limp-wristedly yours
jks (still as a general rule opposed to killing people)
--- Dwayne Monroe <idoru345 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Doug posted (letter from David Holcberg, Ayn Rand
> Institute):
>
>
> Taking him [Arafat] out would not only advance the
> prospects for peace in the region but would show to
> every Palestinian terrorist that Israel means
> business
> and that the days of moral cowardice and appeasement
> towards its enemies are over; it would show that
> Israel will no longer cave in to "world opinion" or
> to
> pressure from American presidents.
>
> **********
>
>
> Randian stupidities aside, we can see that faith in
> force escalation as a method for ending hostilities
> is
> commonly held around the globe. You hear all sorts
> of
> people stating it in one form or another everyday.
>
> It's odd that this belief should persist when
> there's
> a mountain of evidence pointing to the opposite
> conclusion - particularly in the present age when
> technology and knowledge dispersal have given each
> individual the ability to participate in low scale
> warfare.
>
> We know that the US Calvary and settlers used force
> escalation to repress (and nearly wipe out) plains
> tribes such as the Lakota in the 19th century. But
> things would have been far less settled if the
> tribal
> groups had access to the means used by terrorists
> now.
>
> I think military wonks call the new situation fourth
> generation warfare.
>
> Just yesterday, a colleague told me that he felt the
> US wasn't being "ruthless enough" in the war on
> terror(tm). If only we amped up the pace - bombing
> more, invading more, using nukes, essentially going
> completely mad in our application of technodeath
> methodologies "the terrorists would know we mean
> business and stand the fuck down."
>
> I suggested that intelligence and old fashioned
> detective work would go farther, harm fewer
> innocents
> and, in the process, produce fewer new nihilists.
>
> He was shocked at my naivete.
>
> Force is apparently all this breed of subhuman - the
> terrorist - who apparently rose from the murky
> depths
> of the earth uncaused understands. "But" I said,
> "anyone can at anytime choose to become what we call
> a
> terrorist. It's not a tribe of people who can be
> penned in or genocided off the face of the earth.
> It's
> a mode of action, like being a bank robber, that's
> available to just about anyone. So killing lots of
> people to 'prove your point', unless you kill
> everyone
> but a carefully monitored few, is an evil act that
> solves nothing."
>
> "No" he insisted, "more force is what's needed."
>
>
> This is a pretty common notion.
>
>
> We have a tendency to believe all sorts of things in
> spite of contradictory evidence. I think it's one
> of
> our many collective cognitive weaknesses as a
> species.
> Maybe it served some useful function during our
> evolution. Maybe it's just a flaw in our wiring
> that
> was never helpful.
>
> It certainly is not helping us now, in the nuclear
> age
> of terror, climate change and quite literally
> dead-end
> global economics.
>
>
> DRM
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site
> design software
> http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
> ___________________________________
>
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com