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

To: Ilaine who wrote (43216)	9/11/2002 9:25:31 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

The "New Republic" makes a "case" for taking out Saddam. Excerpt: >>>>What is it, then, about the villain in Baghdad that should provoke the United States to rid the world of him? One spectacular thing: He is the only leader in the world with weapons of mass destruction who has used them. He used them against Iranian troops and against Kurdish civilians. This is what makes Saddam Hussein so distinguished in the field of evil. Morally and strategically, he lives in a post-deterrence world. We do not need to speculate about whether he would do the dirtiest deed. He has already done the dirtiest deed. That is the case, and "the case."<<<< tnr.com

To: Ilaine who wrote (43216)	9/11/2002 3:34:33 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

CB, I was interested in Alan Beavan's son's response when asked for the usual stuff on tv. He was impressed by his father's actions, but then pointed out that he'd have expected nothing less of him. Not in a boastful way, just matter of fact. I was impressed by the son. I wonder what Osama's sons are like. As you correctly pointed out, the buildings are mostly anachronistic artifacts which continue to have some utility for us, much of it nostalgia for the good old days. They can't even start to touch what really matters, which is the concepts and operating paradigms under which we run our daily lives, voluntarily. As our great idol, Uncle Al has pointed out, the vast financial empire which lubricates the engine of commerce is predicated on trust. It is simply not possible to enforce every contract, defend every property and punish every fraud. Sure, it's not perfect and trust depends on the catching and punishment of sufficient miscreants that people honour their contracts and financial commitments. I saw a documentary tv programme called "Master Blasters" about rockets, using Globalstar as their subject. It was a fascinating hour. The last scene was Bernie Schwartz, standing by his window in New York, [to get satellite connection], after the last four satellites were launched [though before they were positioned], making a call to San Jose [I think it was San Jose], with the Twin Towers in the background. In 1999, I took our third child, Emily then 18, to Geneva for Telecom99. We rented a car in New York and went to Washington too. I took her to see my beloved Twin Towers, which I first went to see in 1975 when they were brand spanking new. Telecom99 was a tornado of money and technology. Globalstar announced start of service in a tent full of hundreds of media people [and others]. The world was full of hope. It still is but I have tears in my eyes. Head Hacking Moslems might think I have no values, am an infidel and hold me in contempt. Well, Alan Beaven is dead, but more of the Head-Hackers are dead [proportionally] because we outnumber and out breed them by 100s to one. They can kill 50 of us to one of them and they still lose. Because they create nothing. Evil can only exist after good has been created. Evil is like a parasite, which lives only with a host to feed from. Cyberspace is untouchable [other than the odd blockage] because it's distributed. Cantor Fitzgerald's systems didn't miss a beat. They suffered a direct hit. That's what the Head Hacking Moslems are dealing with on a much grander scale. I have the image of Bernie, cheerfully on the Globalstar phone, with the Twin Towers in the background. Now that is all in the past. How times change. So quickly too. But look on the bright side, it wasn't a comet splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. We'll really have something to think about when that happens. It will, and it'll be just like the Twin Towers attack. Out of a clear blue sky. Suddenly. I suggest everyone stop checking for nail clippers in granny's handbag and start scanning the skies, moving uphill and building bunkers. Being prepared is much better than locking the cockpit door after the horse has bolted in and taken over the controls. Next time there's a hijacking, there won't be a lot of discussion. The hijacker will be immediately swamped by desperate and violent people with cabin baggage, bottles, belts, blankets, pillows tea pots, fists, the cockpit axe and the pilot shaking up the plane. Even a guy with a pistol isn't going to get control. Even three guys with pistols will lose. It's time to move on from cockpits and lost Globalstar investments. Build another building or 4 at the Twin Towers site and make it bigger and better [or whatever is architecturally ideal] and fit Globalstar out with a new ownership structure, new phones and another constellation to give total coverage of the planet. When the new buildings are complete and Globalstar is providing cyberspace services everywhere on earth, Osama and his medievil mystics will still be scavenging around in Tora Bora, living off the cast offs from the free Open Society which has got values to live by. Mqurice PS: Ted Kaczynski is in gaol, Osama's hiding in the hills, Tim McVeigh is dead. While they all have good points, we do not take kindly to being murdered by people like them who presume to tell us how to live our lives. They can stay in the bush, like chimpanzees, if they don't like the Frankenstein monster we are creating. We'll even provide them food [in most countries]. The Amish cheerfully live their lives, untarnished by bathroom buddies [though rumour has it some of the young are unimpressed by the Fiddler on the Roof lifestyle of tribe, tradition and repression]. They should trust us. We know what we are doing and where we are going. Don't we? I think it's that way .... hey shine a torch over there....what's that big eye-looking thing glowing in the dark? Wow, it sure can move fast. It's everywhere. Can't move without It.