[thechat] name of Operation Infinite Justice to be changed

judah at wiredotter.com judah at wiredotter.com
Fri Sep 21 20:01:54 CDT 2001


At 08:29 PM 9/21/2001 -0400, Bill wrote:
>Anyway, the best thing I (and everyone else who cares) can do for ourselves
>is to do my own "psych-ing" by not letting people discourage themselves into
>believing that the worst will happen. I'm going to make a point to tell
>everyone how much faith I have in us to do the right thing, and how much
>faith I have in Colin Powell to do the right thing, and how much faith I
>have in Humanity to not just let this get out of hand. I'm going to promote
>positive thinking.
>
>What are you going to do?

I'm making it a point to tell everyone I know how little faith I have in 
our government and how I think that they are setting things up to screw the 
country over worse than any time in recent history.  I'm telling them that 
I fear the worst will happen.  And I'm telling them that the only way to 
stop it from getting that bad is to take control of the government the only 
way we currently have available: public opinion.  I want people more scared 
of what our government is planning than they are of the terrorists.

I want an end to the talk of war and I want a public affirmation of our 
commitment to civil liberties.

I want the US to form an international coalition that combines the 
intelligence resources of the best and the brightest to track down the 
people responsible for these recent acts.  I want international commitment 
to bringing these people to trial, preferably by pressuring host countries, 
by strategic special operations strikes if necessary.

But I really believe that if the international community denounces and 
renounces terrorism in all its forms (including the School of the Americas, 
Isreal's assassination policies, etc.) and works together to hunt down and 
bring to trial terrorist groups, we will be much more successful at 
actually stopping terrorism than any policy currently being mentioned by 
the White House.  I believe that the international community can gain the 
support of countries like Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq, and Iran to stop 
harboring these groups.  But its going to require honesty and commitment 
from Western nations as well.

I honestly belive that nation-states don't benefit from terrorism.  They 
may think that they will benefit in the short run, but history argues that 
they don't benefit in the long run.  Terrorism runs counter to the way the 
nations need to operate.  Terrorist groups are too fickle and too unlike 
states.  We need to help the whole world understand that terrorism doesn't 
benefit anyone except terrorists and certain multinational defense 
contractors who shall remain nameless.

And once we have commitments from nations not to house and support 
terrorists, we are most of the way to ending the problem.  Then we are back 
to regular old war between nations.  Which is far from where I'd like to 
be, but at least we understand it a bit better and can work with political 
solutions and treaties and such.  Not a perfect world mind you, but in my 
opinion, preferrable.

Judah





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