[thechat] War Essentials

[Erik Mattheis]

On Friday, March 28, 2003, at 08:43 PM, Sean wrote:
> PS.  Before you come back with anything Israel has done--no, Israel is 
> not
> perfect and not beyond approach.  But see those folks with the ARMY 
> fatigues
> carry guns out in the open?  See the ARMY check points manned by the 
> ARMY?
> Yeah, that's the Israeli ARMY.  So if anyone wants to make war with 
> Israel,
> they can attack the ARMY!

I hesitate to respond, but I think you're buying into something that 
will someday be known as one of Mankind's biggest follies: saying your 
superior firepower makes your fight just and fair ... and when the 
militarily inferiority of your opponent forces them to use the only 
tactics they have, they're known as "evil terrorists".  Both sides are 
wrong, as they're using their hands instead of their heads to try to 
solve a territorial dispute. Er, I correct myself, it's stupider than a 
territorial dispute: it's a family feud.  Jews, Christians and Muslims 
all claim to be descendants of Abraham. Evidently Abraham didn't come 
up with a very good will, so this is yet another thing we can blame on 
lawyers.

I'm trying to be humorous here so don't get mad ... but  I did some 
search and replace of some nouns in your preemptive rebuttal, and it 
turns out to be really funny:

Before you come back with anything America has done--no, America is not 
perfect and not beyond approach.  But see those folks in the ARMY carry 
guns out in the open?  See the ARMY pushing CHEROKEE INDIANS out of 
their ANCESTRAL HOME onto the TRAIL OF TEARS? Yeah, that's ANDREW 
JACKSON'S ARMY.  So if any of those Cherokees wanted to stay on their 
SACRED LAND, they can attack the ARMY!  (I know, what a concept.)  If 
the Cherokees have a problem with their land being stolen so it could 
be mined for gold, they should just BE KILLED BY THE ARMY.

Palestinians throw rocks and make missiles in their garages (if by 
"missile" you mean something that kinda launches in a general direction 
and may or may not explode at some random time) ... Israel has a 
nuclear arsenal and everything downwards. And Israel whimsically 
bulldozes over houses if they happen to think the land it's built on 
would be better put to use as a buffer zone. The concept is identical 
to the Trail of Tears: a territorial dispute that's being settled on 
the terms of the party with vastly superior firepower and nothing else.

--
-/erik/

Anti-invasion activism ideas:
<http://shockingelk.com/>

More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars.
-Franklin Roosevelt

If the only thing we still have to fear is fear itself, there is more 
than enough to go around.
- R.C. Longworth
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