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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (535958)	2/5/2004 3:37:04 PM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 769670

The Russians held down hostile colonial populations, both within the Soviet Union and on its periphery, through their military power. That is a form of exacting tribute, is it not? As soon as it became clear that they did not have the will to resist the dissolution of the empire, they all started asserting independence. So your first point is factually mistaken. Remember, this is premised on our retreat from the region, and on the impossibility of getting public support for an invasion if Iraq largely confined itself to intimidation. Terrorism, by its very nature, is the response of the weak, and therefore relatively a response to strength, that is true. However, it is always premised on a theory of how the decadent power will crumble if terrorized. Among 19th century anarchists, for example, it was the propaganda of the deed: it was assumed that once the working class saw how vulnerable the ruling class was to attack, it would rise up in overwhelming force. Similarly, people like Saddam imagine that the United States is a racially mongrelized consumer culture that has no true strength of character or sense of honor, and cannot endure a protracted struggle. It is always something, some weakness of character that will be exploited by the terrorists to offset the material advantage. Even Intifada II did not occur until Clinton forced Barak to make major concessions to Arafat. Instead of taking the deal, he rejected them, and the second Intifada began, because the Palestinians smelled blood. There is a limit to the willingness to commit suicide unless you are confident that it will matter in the long run. Those poised against combine actual grievances with bogus narratives, intelligence with delusion. For example, when the ruler of Malaysia says that Jews are all powerful enemies of Islam, he mostly operating in a world remote from the empirical. After all, if it were true, the Jews would have ethnically cleansed the West Bank and Gaza Strip a long time ago. The way you undermine all of that is to show that it is better to live in the West than under these tinpot dictators, and to show that the West has a lot of power, but uses it with discretion and, ultimately, benignly. But above all, you make all but the most deluded think twice before blowing themselves up futilely.......