From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Mon Aug 12 2002 - 14:15:55 MDT
On 12 Aug 2002 at 13:53, Hermit wrote:
>
> Read it, but read it with suspicion. It contains gems like the
> following http://www.msnbc.com/news/639242.asp?0sp=w17b10which would
> be hilarious if they weren't tragic: "And none but a fool would say,
> as the novelist Alice Walker did in The Village Voice, that “the only
> punishment that works is love.” We’ve tried turning the other cheek.
> After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing we held our fire and treated
> the attack as a law-enforcement matter. The terrorists struck again
> anyway. This time the Munich analogy is right: appeasement is doomed."
>
> Ask how the author knows that e.g.(my suggested answers in
> parenthesis): Police work did not reduce the number of attacks? (It is
> the only strategy that has).
>
Wiping out the Al Quaeda central command is having an effect; certainly timid or
nonexistent responses to, their prior attacks only served both to embolden them to
attempt greater terrors and served, in Al Quaeda videos, as propaganda fodder for
the recruitment of further terrorist wannabees to head to Afghani terror training
camps.
>
> Attacks would not occur again anyway no
> matter what action is taken or not taken? (They will).
>
But at the same rate and on the same scale? Highly doubtful.
>
> That some
> significant number of attacks will be prevented by war? (They won't
> be).
>
But some significant number of attacks, OTOH, WILL be prevented by degrading
their ability to prosecute same.
>
> That a war which will undoubtedly kill the uninvolved, will not
> create more anger and frustration leading to more, or more desperate,
> or both, attacks? (It probably will).
>
But allowing such attacks to proceed withiut a response has not succeeded, and
instead has been interpreted as a 'paper tiger' weakness which has emboldened
terrorists to plan and execute more deadly attacks and wannabees to join the
jihad.
>
> and
>
> "Al Qaeda was planning its attack at exactly the time the United
> States was offering a Mideast peace deal favorable to the
> Palestinians."
>
> While reading it, bear in mind that the "favorable peace deal" means,
> essentially- "You have lost your land, you have lost your dignity, you
> have lost your rights, you have lost your security, you have lost the
> protections placed by the world against war crimes and genocide, you
> have lost all hope of redress. Accept what we offer from the
> "generosity of our hearts", or we will continue to oppress and kill
> you until you are dead, exiled or accept what crumbs drop from our
> table."
>
In other words; accept the overwhelming majority of the territories and allow the
fate of the rest to be determined by further negotiations, or walk away and begin
an intifadeh. Clinton had it right; Arafat called him a great man, to which Clinton
responded, "No, I am a failure, and you have made me one." He then called
George W. and specifically warned him that Arafat could not be successfully
negotiated with, for the only power he possessed was the power to say no.
>
> If you read the article, line by line, checking the assumptions, it
> makes for interesting and educational reading - though I'm not sure
> how "well worth reading" it is unless you are prepared to challenge
> it.
>
And to challenge the challenges.
>
> Kind Regards
>
> Hermit
>
> PS Joe, did you notice that it contains "The Quran is a vast, vague
> book, filled with poetry and contradictions (much like the Bible). You
> can find in it condemnations of war and incitements to struggle,
> beautiful expressions of tolerance and stern strictures against
> unbelievers. Quotations from it usually tell us more about the person
> who selected the passages than about Islam. Every religion is
> compatible with the best and the worst of humankind."
>
> I recall you once disagreeing with this position. Of course, it
> continues, "Through its long history, Christianity has supported
> inquisitions and anti-Semitism, but also human rights and social
> welfare." and I think that that statement could easily be challenged.
> They would have done better to leave it at "all religions can be shown
> to be approximately equally harmful."
>
> ----
> This message was posted by Hermit to the Virus 2002 board on Church of
> Virus BBS.
> <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;thread
> id=26066>
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