[Dumb_Ox]

Stability at any price isn't the answer. Stability imposed from above empowered Khomeini and bin Laden

We have solved the problem of stability. Instability imposed from above could prove even worse.

Terror is an inevitable by-product of all grand clampdowns.

Saddam clamped down on Iraqis, he got terrorism.(Really?) We clamp down on Saddam, we get terrorism. We clamp down on insurgents, we get terrorism. This is that cycle of violence cliche that is otherwise ridiculed by Weekly Standard types.

The greatest democracy in history has been conned by its own political elite into fighting for the carto graphic legacy of dead czars, kings, kaisers, and emperors.

Somehow I doubt this contempt for past map-drawing includes withdrawing support for the Israelis, for instance, who benefited from the British Empire's largess.

[humint]

Saddam clamped down on Iraqis, he got terrorism.(Really?) We clamp down on Saddam, we get terrorism. We clamp down on insurgents, we get terrorism. This is that cycle of violence cliche that is otherwise ridiculed by Weekly Standard types

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUIZ

You can pick more than one if you like.

1. It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.
2. It must be admitted that there is a degree of instability which is inconsistent with civilization. But, on the whole, the great ages have been unstable ones.
3. They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security
4. There is no security on this earth. Only opportunity.
5. True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.
6. Security is when everything is settled. When nothing can happen to you. Security is the denial of life.
7. I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave.
8. The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.
9. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
10. I have every sympathy with the American who was so horrified by what he had read about the effects of smoking that he gave up reading.
11. There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One is roots; the other, wings.
12. Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem to be more afraid of life than death
13. He who is firmly seated in authority soon learns to think security, and not progress, the highest lesson of statecraft.
14. I have named the destroyers of nations: comfort, plenty, and security - out of which grow a bored and slothful cynicism, in which rebellion against the world as it is, and myself as I am, are submerged in listless self-satisfaction.
15. A rut is a grave with the ends knocked out.
16. The challenge of social justice is to evoke a sense of community that we need to make our nation a better place, just as we make it a safer place.
17. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
18. As long as we wish for safety, we will have difficulty pursuing what matters.
19. Society, community, family are all conserving institutions. They try to maintain stability, and to prevent, or at least to slow down, change. But the organization of the post-capitalist society of organizations is a destabilizer. Because its function is to put knowledge to work -- on tools, processes, and products; on work; on knowledge itself -- it must be organized for constant change.
20. Reform is affirmative, conservatism negative; conservatism goes for comfort, reform for truth.
21. People wish to be settled: only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them.
22. If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
23. The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.