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

To: SirRealist who wrote (22742)	3/30/2002 9:42:17 PM
From: axial	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi, SR - "But maybe you're right. Deep down inside, there's prolly a right wing John Bircher NRA fundamentalist survivalist militia posse comitatus inner childbeast with a $500-a-day hemoglobin habit." It is the job of the soldier to achieve politically directed aims by military means. It is the job of the civilian to balance the means of achieving political aims. I have been somewhat surprised by the opposition. I just intended to make a fairly simple observation. I have no objection to the use of force: quite the contrary. In stating that pan-Arabic/pseudo-Islamic groups are fostering a set of beliefs - I am not advocating those beliefs. Anybody who thinks that I am some kind of pacifist can wander back to my posts around 9/11 - and read otherwise: my first post on the subject stayed on the SI home page for a week. I won't even bother to respond to those who are suggesting some sort of disguised sympathy for what happened. For those of you who question my sincerity, please note that I make my comments without the artifice or the protection of a pseudonym. So enough: from the meathooks of Dachau, to the Middle East, with its mirror-image atrocities on both sides of the line, I have witnessed my share of human depravity: often, with a loaded weapon in my hand. However, I believe - in the context of the state of Israel - that our responsibility for trying to achieve peace should equal our efforts to foster military solutions. Difficult? Hell, yes! The recent Saudi initiative represents an effort by a major source of funding in this conflict to begin a dialogue on peace - with the security of the state of Israel as its starting point. This is no small thing. So, I'll state my case (not what people "think" I am saying) for the third time: In the absence of a political settlement guaranteeing Israel's existence, the future is predictable.