[lbo-talk] Chechen hostages taken by Russian SF

[Marvin Gandall]

This "demonstration effect", as much as oil, was also the purpose of
invading Iraq: to "shock and awe" the Arab Middle East into acceptance of a
peace settlement on US-Israeli terms by punishing the irredentists, with
Saddam and his army made to stand-in as their representative. So far, the
effect has seemed the opposite, but collective punishment is also designed
to be applied relentlessly, to grind down, exhaust, and break the will of
the weaker party to resist -- even as justice-loving world opinion looks on
in dismay and bewilderment. Putin, Sharon, and Rumsfeld/Cheney all subscribe
to this school. Even liberals like Clinton succumb to this philosophy as
they learn to exercise power. It is why employers incur huge costs to hold
out in lengthy strikes. Mostly it works, but not always -- and also, as we
can see, in societies not reputed to have "collective mindsets".

MG

----- Original Message -----
From: "Wojtek Sokolowski" <sokol at jhu.edu>
To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2004 9:20 AM
Subject: RE: [lbo-talk] Chechen hostages taken by Russian SF


> >Kim Murphy
> > Times Staff Writer sez:
> >
> > "They were following the standard practice developed almost a century
> > ago by the Bolsheviks and carried on by Stalin, who believed that
> > every single act of terror should be responded to by an even bigger,
> > more horrendous, more terrifying terrorist act," Zakayev said.
> > "According to this practice, it is necessary to shock terrorists, and
> > let them know that under no condition will you agree to negotiate
> > with them."
>
> Let me recall President William Jefferson Clinton saying, in connection
> with the US humanitarian intervention is Somalia:
>
> 'We're not inflicting pain on these fuckers,' Clinton said, softly at
> first. 'When people kill us, they should be killed in greater numbers.'
> Then, with his face reddening, his voice rising, and his fist pounding
> his thigh, he leaned into Tony [Lake, then his national security
> adviser], as if it was his fault. 'I believe in killing people who try
> to hurt you. And I can't believe we're being pushed around by these
> two-bit pricks.'"
>
> Incidentally, both Mr. Stalin and Mr. Clinton and, I may add, Mr.
> Sharon, seem to be up to something.  Collective punishment seems to be a
> better deterrent than individual punishment in societies with
> collectivist mindsets.
>
> This is not meant to condone such practices, albeit I am not castigating
> them either.  This would be cheap moralizing, so characteristic of the
> US parochial mentality.  This is to say that the conceptual apparatus of
> US jurisprudence is deeply rooted in individualistic view of human
> nature and condition, and thus suffers from all the shortcomings and
> fallacies of such a view.
>
> Wojtek
>
>
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