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

To: FaultLine who wrote (4487)	10/12/2001 9:04:08 AM
From: Jill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

That Friedman piece is brilliant & eloquent. I hope it makes it way to Bin Laden's bunker. Meanwhile, how come nobody is mentioning that 700 pounds of explosives were stolen from Houston, sometime between Saturday and Tuesday. I would think that's the origin of the FBI warning. I called local FBI but I am one of countless people reporting the email about Oct 31 and the shopping mall warning. So at least that's being taken seriously. I had a sinking feeling though, after learning about the explosives. That is as follows: they have studied us, and lived here, and they understand us better than we understand them. We can't change overnight--we "understand" this is a different kind of war, but we don't know how to live differently, it would take us years to adjust and become like Israel. How the #$& did all those explosives get stolen? We are not anticipating their next step very well. I wonder now if the cropduster stuff wasn't intentional clues left behind to distract us. And if that Oct 31 email is at all true, then they had already anticipated the length of time we might take to respond. Some conjecture here, but maybe not that far off base.

To: FaultLine who wrote (4487)	10/12/2001 10:13:30 AM
From: SirRealist	Respond to of 281500

Osama bin Laden — he destroyed much, he built nothing. His lasting impact was like a footprint in the desert. Good Friedman column, though I note he went out of his way to avoid mentioning the camel urine in the footprint... <GG>

To: FaultLine who wrote (4487)	10/12/2001 10:42:58 AM
From: lh56	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

go, tommy boy but, less chat, more splat. it's a little disappointing to see these big brains still dogpaddling around in the shallows....orwell... the dilemma as i learned it: i cannot now find the original tape of this pbs 'frontline' program, nor, exactly who produced it. (possibly judy woodruff, it's her kind of story.) it was filmed in jerusalem about 3-4 years ago. the scenes are burned into my memory, however, and are still pungent. the shot opens on a square in the middle of the morning, june, i think, hot. the narrator is describing the everyday events and notes four young palistinian boys playing around on a low stone ledge. they look like typical, happy, goofing around kids. evidently there'd been no violence lately, people appear calm, but active. the camera pans around the square and picks up a couple of israeli girls, about the same age as the boys, walking across the square, cute kids, talking, laughing and then something happens. you don't notice it right away because you can't really credit what you're seeing. your sense of the familiar has tricked you into seeing young, good looking kids flirting with each other, cute behavior, but one boy, who's still smiling right at one of the girls draws his forefinger from under his left ear down and across his throat, a big, slow, violent gesture then whipping his finger toward the ground flicking the blood from the knife. now all the boys are doing it. the girls just keep smiling, walking toward the boys, each raising an arm, making a pistols out of fists and squeezing the triggers. pow pow pow. it's very clear now, nobody's playing. and they're still smiling but the laughter's stopped and the shock is visceral. they're killing each other in the middle of the square in the middle of the morning and you're watching them do it and suddenly you start to get it. this is implacable hatred, learned from the cradle. and in their lifetime it's never going to change. so, that's the dilemma and i've distilled it here: 1. "if i believe in my soul that israel has no right to exist, what are my leaders negotiating?" 2. "if i believe in my soul an arab will always want me dead, what's to negotiate?" gotta get good answers for these. otherwise...just dogpaddling around in the shallows. i watched this one last night, it was very good. most of the program content is here: pbs.org cheers all, larry