> unleashing the CIA on Osama bin Laden
>and his Al Qeada accomplices.
So what's your approach? Should a government - and I assume you're not an anarchist, so a government is ok by you - have an intelligence agency?
Our mutual pal Cockburn wrote in The Nation's Nov 12, 2001, issue:
>The left should be for peace, which in no way means ignoring the
>demands of either side. Bin Laden calls for: an end to sanctions on
>Iraq; US troops out of Saudi Arabia; justice for Palestinians. The
>left says aye to those, though we want a two-state solution whereas
>bin Laden wants to drive Jews along with secular and Christian
>Palestinians into the sea. The US government calls for a dismantling
>of the Terror Network, and the left says aye to that too. Of course
>we oppose networks of people who wage war on civilians, as Seth
>Bardacke remarked to his dad after September 11. What the American
>people should have learned from September 11 is that bombing
>civilians is wrong. As Doug Lummis then wrote in Japan: "Fully
>grasping the total criminality and horror of those attacks can be
>used to grasp the equal criminality and horror of similar acts in
>the past. This understanding can provide a solid ground for opposing
>all similar acts (including state terrorism) in the future."
>
>So we're pretty close to supporting demands on both sides, but we
>know these demands are not going to be achieved by war. What is this
>war about? On Bush's side it's about the defense of the American
>Empire; on the other, an attempt to challenge that in the name of
>theocratic fundamentalist Islam. On that issue the left is against
>both sides. We don't want anyone to kill or die in the name of the
>American Empire, for the "war on terror" to be cashed in blood in
>Colombia or anywhere else, or for anyone to kill or die in the name
>of Islamic fundamentalism. Go to the UN, proceed on the basis that
>September 11 was a crime. Bring the perpetrators to justice by legal
>means.
I'm guessing, given your professions in the past, that you more or less agree with this (I do). So what agency would identify, pursue, and capture the perps? The NYPD? The Red Cross? Or something like the CIA?
Doug