I am angry: was Re: I am frightened

[David Love]

Though there is great danger of overreaction to the current crisis, normal
rules of engagement do not apply in all circumstances.  It is naive to think
that we can assemble a public quorum to fight an enemy that operates using
such desperate and clandestine methods.  I can only imagine the 6:00 news:
"Bush plans secret attack on Bin Laden".  Though I have been as cynical as
any about the methods of government in the past, there are times when
duplicity secrecy is necessary to protect oneself.  We value our  free and
open society, but we forget that we have in the past protected that openness
with secret operations, manipulation and murder.  Our call for freedom of
information has come with the naive belief that it comes at no cost.  We
abhor international dirty tricks to take down malignant leaders, but we call
for the random bombings for entire countries who might harbor our fugitive.
We tie the hands of US intelligence and we blame them for not knowing in
advance.  We operate in the post cold war as if no one would dare.  We,
afterall, are the most mighty.  We have the largest army that marches
together in step.  We have the biggest ships, the fastest aircraft and the
most powerful missiles.  We can flex our muscles and show you our strength.
Well, sometimes the most powerful weapons are those unseen.  We seem to have
lost the stomach for that.

David Love

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Ballard" <yardbird@pop.vermontel.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: September 13, 2001 8:48 PM
Subject: RE: I am frightened


> At 7:40 PM -0600 9/13/01, Keith & Linda Corbridge wrote:
> >      SO AM I, WE SHOULD`VE ALREADY TURNED AFGANISTAN INTO GREENGLASS
THAT
> >GLOWS IN THE DARK. ONE PEACEKEEPER MISSILE COULD DO THAT AND THE SUDAN
TOO
>
> At 4:01 PM -0700 9/13/01, pianolover 88 wrote:
> >Now LISTEN! We need to come together as ONE NATION, put political
> >bia aside and SUPPORT OUR > > >PRESIDENT! The LAST thing we need is
> >for you to BASH our commander in Chief! PLEASE!
> >This > >Anti-BushCRAP makes me SICK! This was an act of WAR these
> >low-life COWARDLY SCUM BAGS >perpetrated on our great Country, adn
> >the last thig we need is someone trashing our president! So STOP
>
> Nothing like a hateful act to bring out a hateful response. Actually,
> in the long view of it, this is a historical tide of power. Whoever
> the perpetrators are, they have skillfully used our strength (besides
> an unstoppable economy, a high-speed transportation infra structure)
> to their own advantage. This is not a new kind of war, although its
> effectiveness has been sharpened to surgical grade. The French didn't
> win in Indochina, we didn't either. Nor have the British in Northern
> Ireland. The Israelis are getting ground down by their unending state
> of war.
>
> Humanity has never won these wars of the indigenous against their
> invaders, because war is the wrong response. The conflict between the
> fundamentalists and the civil, prosperous industrialized countries
> resembles, on a smaller scale, crime seeping into an upscale
> neighborhood. Crime is simply a means of rapidly transferring
> wealth. The good people of the town bring to bear on the police
> constabulary to "git tuff" on crime. The police quite effectively
> oblige, at the cost of even hungrier and more resentful criminal
> outcasts. The fundamentalist extremists of course have God on their
> side (~don't we all). If we have anything to fear it's far more than
> an individual Bin Laden, it's the possibility of all the outcasts in
> the world (the narco-trafficers, the islamic extremists, the IRA, the
> Indonesians) forming their own network and dividing up the world.
>
> Instead, the US should lead in the defense of moral and civil
> behavior among nations. The revulsion against this brutal and
> barbaric attack is global, and ready to move. But in doing so, this
> country should be an example of moral and civil behavior. Our own
> instant focus on Bin Laden is misplaced; most non-western nations see
> it as the same old same old. Where were we during the butchery of
> Bosnia, East Timor or Rwanda. Our focus on Bin Laden also removes a
> fundamental stone in our legal system, the presumption of innocence.
> What we need now is the kind of quiet intelligence work that the
> Israelis have gotten so good at, not the commotion of a cowboy.
> What's more, our indictments of the individuals and countries need to
> be flawless. So, in its response to this outrage the US needs to
> perform well, if we are to get anything near the coalition we had
> going into the Gulf War.
>
> But if we see it is a war, we'll never win. The advanced nations are
> too vulnerable because of technological infrastructures built on
> political stability (like tall buildings which can ordinarily count
> on not being run into by airplanes). Instead we must steadfastly
> insist on a civilized response to this, one which serves as an
> example of the rewards of political stability for the people and
> governments among whom these terrorists live. It's a hard sell, and I
> can see why this country might prefer to shoot bullets at these
> people rather than tell them how they'll benefit from a peaceful
> world.
>
> If anyone uses the word war, they use it for their own emotional
> purposes, not because it is a long-term winning strategy. But oh God,
> what horrific destruction, and murder of people. Those twin towers
> went down quicker than the Titanic, and crushing with it what I hear
> is the daily number of people, 40-50K.
>
> End of sermon.
>
> Bill Ballard RPT
> NH Chapter, P.T.G.
>
> "Baa, Ram Ewe....Baa, Ram Ewe,
> To your breed, To your fleece, To your clan be true
> Sheep be true.......Baa, Ram, Ewe"
>      ...........Conversation starter in uncertain social situations
> +++++++++++++++++++++