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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MSI who wrote (708)	9/21/2001 2:26:05 PM
From: jambo-bwana	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

If the key to understanding geopolitical movements is to find out who profits... then if you're right, who benefits? A good question and I think that it is a function of how events unfold. Therein lies the real challenge for Bush and his administration in making sure that in our effort to eradicate terrorism we don't stir up a hornet's nest. The oft expressed view by Bush and others that this is a battle for our civilization, freedom, etc is as simplistic as those who say that the whole problem is our support of Israel.

To: MSI who wrote (708)	9/21/2001 3:57:12 PM
From: FaultLine	Respond to of 281500

If the key to understanding geopolitical movements is to find out who profits... then if you're right, who benefits? I've been thinking about this ever since reading these kinds of arguments in the Karachi newpaper as a justification for accusing Israel (or the CIA) of engineering the WTC attack. One way to look at this is that I dismiss the Israeli conjecture out of hand. so that leaves me trying to understand how it is that "find out who profits" can come up with, and justify, such a wrong answer. I believe the reason for such an error is that one actually cannot find out who profits the most from any real world action, that is to say, a convincing line of reasoning can be spun out to indict practically any agent if you are clever enough (think Tom Clancy here...) For example: Israel did it - they knew the world would rise up against the Islamic countries and allow Israel to have a free hand. Radical Islamists did it: They see the USA as the last bastion of world resistance to the complete imposition of Fundamentalist Islam throughout the world. Any thing to embarrass, wound, or provoke a conflict with this ultimate enemy is permitted. The CIA did it: Same logic as the Israeli argument above. Let's see, can anyone think of reasons why China or Russia or Japan or France could have engineered this catastrophe? All you have to do is to think like a good novelist. Therefore, I consider the "discover who profits" technique to be a very unconvincing form of analysis, one highly subject to creative spin. --fl