[thechat] Airlines

[Erika Meyer]

>"security" comes at a price:
>         are we willing to pay an extra $100 for the same flight?
>         are we willing to inconvenienced with time and invasion of privacy?
>         are we ready for out way of life to be changed, with Terror 
>as the catalyst?
>         are we ready for Carnivore to be installed across the Internet?

Right, instead of letting terror and fear rule our lives, I think 
we'd be better off thinking a bit more critically before we go 
sending our military to get involved in overseas conflicts, 
especially when the primary motivation is US business interests.

I was against the Gulf War. I was against the war because I knew it 
would be harder to end than it was to begin, and I knew that the 
suffering would go on beyond the end of the war.

People like me, people opposed to the war, were denounced as "UnAmerican."

Now we have Gulf War Syndrome, we have innocent children starving in 
Iraq, we have a conflict that goes on and on.  None of it is simple.

It's kind of hard to see where Bin Laden would have gotten his fuel 
from, had it not been for the Gulf War, the embargo, the 
Israel/Palestinian conflicts...

But still, to say that, invites denunciation.

Terror shouldn't motivate us to action.
Nor should bloodlust.
Nor greed.

There are no simple answers.

>are we willing to see money diverted from education or the 
>environment back into Defense?

That is going to happen anyway... and from what I see, money gets 
diverted from education & environment regardless of defense spending.


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