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

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (117243)	10/19/2003 11:52:00 PM
From: marcos	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

' only difference between crime and war is scale' - that's one way to express it, maybe .... probably takes something resembling a government on each side, as well, otherwise there is no opponent with definable territory Another reason for terming al Qaeda style terrorism as crime and not war, is that by doing so you avoid giving the bin Ladens the right to speak for Islam ..... they do not legitimately have that right, no matter what they say about it, they don't have it until the great body of muslims agree and actively support them .... by honouring bL as 'warrior', you set him up as some kind of generalísimo with the power of spokesman for 1.3 billions people, something he hasn't earned, and won't, unless whackos among us get on this 'war' crusade One of the smartest moves Dubya made, was right after 11.09.01 he went to that mosque, took off his shoes and showed respect for a faith not his own ..... he was looking for allies, and that's a better way to get them than his little slip of the lip with the term 'crusade' ..... police can have allies, i don't think you need a war for that?

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (117243)	11/11/2003 2:09:15 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

<The only difference between crime and war is scale. If one person points a gun at me and takes something from me (my life, my freedom, my money) that's crime. If a million people do it to a million other people (using exactly the same methods, for exactly the same goals), that's war.> .... or democracy. The majority votes to keep other groups repressed or to take their property or freedom. Even their lives. My father's cousin, a WWI hero, was gaoled in WWII for speaking against the war. Democracy bears a similar relationship to freedom as a naughty weekend does to marriage. There is nothing especially moral or ethical about democracy, despite all the puffing and posturing by those presuming to instruct others in the wonders of civilization. It's just bullying, kleptocracy, thievery and murder by a different name and with the benefits spread more widely than the more usual totalitarian dominance hierarchies. The adulation of democracy has developed quite cult-like characteristics. Mqurice