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blah prattle blabber | by Caius | 2001-10-08 14:23:18 |
| ideal vs real |
by Screwy Squirrel |
2001-10-08 18:05:51 |
Rather than just complain about the nature of the links, I actually decided to look at a few of them. Ideally, I agree with most of these people - wouldn't it be nice if we lived in a world where we could just talk out our differences and come to some kind of constuctive solution without mass slaughter? Then it occurs to me that maybe these people never grew up having to deal with a schoolyard bully. Simply ignoring the person doesn't make them stop, and trying to reason with them only encourages them. The only way to make them think twice about picking on you is to beat the sh*t out of one. Does this make you a bully too? No, not if you don't continue. Does it necessarily stop them? No, but they will think twice the next time.
So, in order to make this little analogy work, who is the bully here? Bin Laden and his merry band of terrorists? From the point of view of the average person in the US, most likely this is the case. How about the US? If we take the statements of Bin Laden, et al, at face value, they certainly are trying to make the US out to be the bully. A not-so-careful look at Bin Laden's statements shows them to be loaded with ignorance(I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, here, that he's not deliberately trying to deceive people) and half truths... however, even if they were all pure fantasy, they still point to a deep-seated resentment directed toward the US.
This is why the response needs to be so careful - this resentment is out there - Bin Laden, so far, is the only one with the resources to express it. We need to be careful not to fan this resentment into something bigger than us. Airdropping food and supplies is a start, but a large-scale humanitarian effort needs to coincide with the military strikes....
Anyways, I've babbled on enough here.... |
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[ Reply ] |
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airdrops in a bucket? | by sonofabusch | 2001-10-08 18:51:56 |
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"Here I come to save the daaay!" | by adiplomat | 2001-10-08 18:58:21 |
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Who knows, | by wheresthefish | 2001-10-08 19:01:16 |
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