Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : War -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (3712)	9/15/2001 11:16:17 AM
From: Bilow	Respond to of 23908

Hi Hawkmoon; The important little detail that that paper gave me (that I hadn't realized) was that the Iraqis had fire suppression radar, and it had worked very well against the Iranians. But with the US control of the air, the radars couldn't be turned on. On our side, presumably with more modern radars, we left them on all the time. It just goes to show how important minor technological advancements are. This is a more effective advantage than steel had over bronze. This whole line of thought is in this fascinating book: The End of History and the Last Man Francis Fukuyama, Avon Books, 1993 In this provocative book, Francis Fukuyama begins by examining the problem of whether it makes sense to posit a coherent and directional history that would lead the greater part of humanity to liberal democracy. After answering in the affirmative, he asks why this should be so. The search for causes leads him first to the regulatory effect of modern science (and technology), a societal activity that develops progressively and leads inevitably to capitalism. To account for democracy, Fukuyama turns to a “second, parallel account of the historical process,” rooted in humanity’s “struggle for recognition,” or thymos, a concept articulated and borrowed (from Plato) by Hegel. In this context, he goes on to reinterpret culture, nationalism, religion, war, ethical codes and allied phenomena from the past, projecting ways in which the desire for recognition could express itself in the future. Finally, Fukuyama addresses history’s presumptive end and the so-called “last man,” an unheroic construct (drawn from Tocqueville and Nietzsche) who has traded prideful belief in individual worth for the civilized comforts of self-preservation. Assuming the prosperity promised by contemporary liberal democracy indeed comes to pass, Fukuyama wonders whether or how the side of human personality that thrives on competition, danger, and risk can be fulfilled in the sterile ambiance of a “brave new world.” mfh.org I should note that I disagree completely with the author about his main point. He assumes that technology will continue to constantly advance. I say nothing lasts forever. -- Carl

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (3712)	9/15/2001 11:46:43 AM
From: Nadine Carroll	Respond to of 23908

Interesting quote from David Tell in The Weekly Standard: "That until recently, our custodians of respectable opinion, surveying the "dispute" between Arab suicide bombers and the Israeli schoolchildren whose blood they spilled, carefully constrained themselves to revile the sin but not entirely the sinner. That it was the policy of the United States government, in fact, to divvy up the equities just a bit - to insist that its friends in Jerusalem acknowledge, in the "sources" of antiquity, some claim to justice by the enemies at their gates. No more, all gone, goodbye - vanished in the fireballs and, later that same day, in the television image of ululating hags and Palestinian Authority policemen in Nablus, dancing with joy on lower Manhattan's grave. It seems there is, after all, something very properly called Middle Eastern terrorism and something else, starkly different, very properly called the West. It seems the former means indiscriminately to kill anything associated with the latter - means to kill us. No, has killed us, and will no doubt eagerly kill us again, huge numbers of us at a time, given the slightest opportunity. What more bracing piece of information could there be than that?"