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

To: NightOwl who wrote (125714)	3/8/2004 9:47:22 AM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Entirely apart from the unwarranted threat your solution poses to my porcine friends,... it is exactly what terrifies me in Harris' slight of hand essay. He's attempting to build a theoretical basis to justify an underlying solution of a similar sort. Obviously there is no need to build a theoretical justification, for a solution that "no one could contemplate." I see a lot of parallels between militant Islamism and Nazi "ideology," the destruction of Jews being only one of their common features. Others are the surrender of rationality to ideas whose based on a virulent underlying racism, the ideology's mass appeal, the sense of pride it gives to the dispossessed. The Lakota Ghost Dancers also fit the bill. The common features of these fantasies give the "true believers" the absolute certainty that they are invincible, i.e., that Allah instead of structural engineering spoke to them when the Twin Towers fell. As a result they are free to be as audacious as they can be. This is why nuclear stuff will be the Islamists next gambit. The nuclear retaliation stuff is a bit of hyperbole designed to get you and others thinking about how to best deal with the future. In my view, we have to make sure that Islam's leaders know that there will be serious repercussions should the nuclear events I dread take place. Islamic leaders need to be used to effectively control their Islamist populace. We cannot do so alone for any number of reasons. How? Good question. Very good question. Unfortunately, fantasy ideologies seem to inevitably lead to disaster for the fantasizers, but not before the "rational" suffer both for what they do in response as well as at the hands of the irrational. You might recall that Yankee reaction to Ghost Dancers lead to Wounded Knee and other outrages.

To: NightOwl who wrote (125714)	3/8/2004 5:46:55 PM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Or any capitol for that matter. And that's a tad too undiscriminating for me. Perhaps, then, you remember Dr. Strangelove, and the film's Doomsday Machine, a weapon that was designed to go off in the case of any nuclear attack on Soviet soil. The Machine was undiscriminating and powerful, so powerful that life as we know it would end if it ever were to go off. Before the Doomsday Machine can be announced to the world so as to serve its deterrent purpose, a test of US nuclear-armed B-52s goes awry. Of course, one of the bombers cannot be recalled in time to prevent it from dropping a nuke on a Soviet ICBM facility. Ergo, the Doomsday Machine detonates. Poof, all dead. Kubrick and Peter Sellers at their darkest best. The problem with indiscriminate weapons is that they are subject to error and to the whims of madmen. Got any better ideas? Fishing doesn't cut it, too young to retire. Think out of the box. C2@youcan'tfighthere,thisistheWarRoom!.com