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

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (111124)	8/12/2003 4:13:53 PM
From: GST	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Terror only works to destroy our society if it can undermine the vital institutions that safeguard our way of life. The horror of the twin towers, the property damage and the shock of being attacked do nothing to advance the destructive aims of the terrorist in the long run. They do not seek to destroy people and buildings, they seek to destroy our institutions. What they count on is our reaction -- and it is our own reaction that destroys our institutions, because we are the only ones who can do it. They can just blow-up our property. It is left to us to decide whether or not we destroy ourselves in response. We can take steps against their attacks and win -- when we strengthen airplane cockpit doors we win -- when we bomb the terror training camps we win -- when we make an honest reassessment of our relations to Saudi Arabia and Israel we win. But when we use terror attacks to destroy the institutions that safeguard our way of life, we lose. And under Bush, we are losing more and more each day.

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (111124)	8/12/2003 10:59:55 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hawk, re <Terrorism commit their acts in order to focus media and public attention upon themselves and their cause, in hopes they can intimidate their victims into conceding to their demands.. > That's the theoretical justification with which vicious bastards dress up their chimpoid alpha male dominance hierarchy cruelty. They also use some ideas of revenge to justify their murderousness too. But the real reason is simply that they are vicious bastards who like to be vicious thugs and see fear from other people. They enjoy what they do. Much as a golfer enjoys golf, rugby players love rugby and sadomasochists can't wait for their next fix with their dominatrix [or whatever they do]. There are all sorts of reasons people give for what they do, but mostly, it's because they get a kick out of it and it appeals to their reptilian underpinnings. Being nice to a cat won't stop it torturing a mouse. Being a pacifist won't stop a genocidal tribal elimination of males and male children and eating of them. Pacifists taste just fine. Some people are just vicious bastards who can sometimes be dissuaded from their violent preferences, but all too often can only be stopped by a bullet through the brain or the bars of a cage. If their demands are met, they'll act pleased, but be looking for more demands to make. Megalomaniacs are notorious for unlimited seeking of increased power, just as mountain climbers went higher and higher, even with great risk of death, up higher and higher mountains until even Mt Everest was won. Violence is their mountain. They want to scale the heights. Osama hit the jackpot with the Twin Towers destruction, Pentagon attack and the battle in the sky for the last aircraft [and at least one other where the hijack didn't take place for some reason]. That was a spectacular achievement. An Olympic Gold in terror, cruelty, violence, mayhem and destruction. A unimaginative Bali bomb and absurd shoe-bomber were pitiful attacks by comparison. They like what they do. They won't stop. They'll find other reasons to continue unless like an old champion, they get too tired and go out to pasture. Here's what Fred thinks about it. He's right. fredoneverything.net We all have the instinct, but some of us are not modulated, domesticated and civilized and are instead sensitized into extreme acting out of those instincts. They like what they do. Mqurice