[thechat] Concrete actions (was: Justice, was Chomsky, was Michael Moore's message)

[judah at wiredotter.com]

At 05:38 PM 9/17/2001 -0500, Scott wrote:

> >
> > I think many many paths could be explored.  But this would take time,
>
>Name them.
>
> > strategy, a refocusing.  Instead of being a world cop, the US could
> > be a model of global consciousness, of ethical behavior.
>
><knee jerk>Is it ethical to let the Taliban treat their women so?</knee
>jerk>
>
>Please identify action items that we can use to demonstrate this. I want
>nitty-gritty. --I have yet to see any.

Ok.  I've been working on an opinion piece to send to my local paper (who 
most likely won't publish it) and to my congressmen (whom I hope at least 
read it).  I've done alot of thinking and realized that the fundamental 
question we (applies to the U.S. and probably others) should be 
asking:  What can we do to stop terrorism?

There are those who want revenge, justice, etc., in response to the recent 
attack, but that is really a short-term issue.  The long term issue is how 
the U.S. should deal with the rising tide of terrorism.  It is generally 
agreed that we need to do *something* in response to the recent attack, but 
it is vitally important to figure out what the best response is before its 
too late.  So here is my answer:

1) The U.S. has not been good at guerilla warfare in the last hundred odd 
years.  The U.S. (both military and civilian) has an unusual preoccupation 
with the deaths of innocent civilians.  IMHO, that is a good thing and it's 
something I'd like to see continue. There have certainly been incidences to 
the contrary (such as Mai Lai), but the notoriety of those incidents speaks 
to my point.   I don't *want* the U.S. to get good at guerilla warfare.  I 
think it would damage us politically and psychologically.  For these 
reasons, we should avoid guerilla warfare at all costs.

2) To deal with the current attack, I believe that we should apply a 
concerted intelligence effort to locate the people behind the 
attacks.  Then we should utilize the special forces of the U.S. and our 
allies (such as Isreal's Mossad) to capture, if possible, and kill, if 
necessary, the people responsible.  I would prefer them brought in front of 
the International Court of Justice, but that is not possible in all 
circumstances.  We must involve the international community and make it 
very apparent that we will not ignore the attacks, but neither will we 
unilaterally take on the world.

3) After we deal with immediate terrorism threats, we need to start 
focusing on preventing future incidents.  Long-term security is best gained 
by reducing the number of your enemies, not by securing your 
borders.  There are reasons that many parts of the world dislike the United 
States.  It behooves our nation to understand and acknowledge those 
reasons.  Thus far that has not happened.  The populace (and seeming the 
leadership) of the U.S. sees the recent terrorist attacks as a product of 
insane individuals, not the product of historical and social forces that 
the U.S. plays a significant role in.  This must change.

4)  The United States must stop sponsoring and training terrorists.  We 
keep supporting and training folks like Osama Bin Landen, Saddam Hussein, 
and Manuel Noriega.  We hope to use these terrorists to our own 
ends.  Then, surprisingly enough, they turn out to be terrorists on a much 
broader scale which impacts our interests in a negative manner.  People 
hate us because we try to destabilize their countries.  We got angry for 
China contributing money to politicians deemed friendly to China.  Imagine 
how many of these countries feel when we give money and guns to the people 
who overthrow their governments?  Can anyone name a country that has 
embraced democracy and become friendly to the United States as a result of 
our covert meddling?

5)  The U.S. needs to improve on the ground human intelligence.  We have a 
horrid record of understanding and predicting the actions of hostile 
terrorist organizations (both here and abroad).  We must recognize that our 
most imminent threats (hello missile shield) are not hi-tech, but rather 
low tech.  There are pro-democracy elements in each of the countries that 
we identify as being a terrorism sponsoring nation (such as the Kurds in 
Iraq).  We must not only support their pro-democracy activities, but we 
must convince them to be pro-America as well.  Stopping the sponsorship of 
terrorism would be a good start to that goal.

6)  There is a lot to like about the U.S.  We need to work with Voice of 
America-type systems to showcase the good things about our country.  There 
are too many places (Palestine, Iraq, Afganastan, etc.) that only know a 
single, evil dimension to the U.S.  We need to make sure that we present to 
positives to our country while simultaneously not bolstering the points 
about the negative actions of our country.

If we can recognize the economic and cultural imperialism that American 
presents to much of the rest of the world, we will go a long way toward 
reducing the causes of terrorism.  I sincerely believe that terrorists form 
only a very small percentage of any nation on this planet.  If we can work 
to gain the trust and respect of the rest of the inhabitants of those 
countries, we will have a very strong intelligence to use to stop the 
proliferation of terrorism at its source, rather than trying to thwart it 
at our borders.  Only then will we have an effective means of combating the 
spector of terrorism.

Enough ranting for now,

Judah :-)