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 : High Tolerance Plasticity -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: White Bear who wrote (9388)	10/11/2001 6:16:05 PM
From: kodiak_bull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23153

Sahara, I don't know if this will put it in perspective or not, or whether I am qualified to put it in perspective, but here goes. We are now at war, but at war not with a state or an empire or even with domestic revolutionaries, but with an evil idea which floats from state to state and from mind to mind. We are battling shadows here and it won't be easy. But it's still a war, and in war time I am told people go about their business and maintain their normal composure and activities. That's what I'm trying to do. We will have to trust our leaders and our service men and women to get us through this thing safely, and we will owe them a debt of gratitude unlike anything felt in this country since 1945, which predates not only my consciousness and my birth but anything I can conceive of. What you are feeling now (here, I can do a little amateur psychoanalysis) is a feeling of powerlessness, a rage. The terrorists have made us helpless, or at least feel helpless in protecting ourselves and our families. Strange, we used to only feel that way about certain rough neighborhoods, and knew if we stayed clear, locked the doors, maybe had a firearm handy, we could insure safety. Now, with this war, all bets are off. Get used to it, this just might be a long campaign (aw shit, I'll jes' call it a crusade). It won't be over until 1) the current batch of terrorists are dead in the sense of not breathing 2) their ideas are discredited among all civilized people, including the states of the Middle East. How does #2 happen? Think back, how did Germany and Japan learn to reject, totally and forever, fascism and empire? It was through unbelievable pain and suffering of their people, 99% of them "innocent." Yes, their governments started unbelievable conflagrations and caused unfathomble horror, but their own countries (Dresden, Berlin, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki) suffered a hometown destruction of immense proportions. Germany has basically renounced war and Japan has literally renounced anything other than self defense. The havens of terrorism and the proponents of terrorism must suffer unbearable pain; we must speak to the terrorists in a language which they understand. Although I don't support nuclear attack, I do think we will have to go after the terrorists in any way we can, to find that "terrorist language" which they can understand. It will involve striking their homes, families and villages. It occurs to me that Syria and Jordan speak that language pretty damn well--I believe we could read up on their communication skills and figure this one out. But this campaign will last most of the first decade of this century, imho, although the news may not cover many of the important campaigns. Kb