Posted on 09/16/2001 9:10:20 AM PDT by Clive
Have you read Demi Bin Laden's hysteria? Go to one of his threads.
He hates this country.
After that I would go fix all the problems the Clinton Administration created.
1. Force the Israeli to pull out of the west bank
2. Pull the US out of the balkans and let them settle there own problems.
3. Beef up our security in the US.
4. Invade Iraq, secure the oil, and get rid of Hussein. Set up a new puppet government.
I agree with you here!
I am confused. Are these terrorists "soldiers" for the Arab and Muslim world or are they not? I see all sorts of messages from Arab states and Muslim clerics disassociating themselved from Bin Laden, but then I see messages like yours which seem to say the opposite.
It seems to me that one cannot have it both ways. Does Bin Laden represent the Arabs or doesn't he? If he does, then the Arab states and Islam are responsible for what he did. If he does not, then he is nothing more than a maniac and a criminal in the catagory of a Charles Manson or a Ted Kaczynski or a Symbionese Liberation Army and his "political agenda" should be taken about as seriously as we take the agendas of those people.
Actually, you can have it both ways if you think outside the box, (I can't believe I just used that cliche, but there it is.)
Not all societies have evolved into post-enlightenement/nation state political consciousness--lines on the map notwithstanding. There are a lot of ancient, turbulent rivers flowing under that map which the British and French left behind.
The US is about to embark upon a crusade to "rid the world of evil"--a world that does not really look exactly as it seems when you rip the map off its facade. Things are much more clear when we pierce the veil of our own dearly beloved delusions about that map....
We don't weaken ourselves, or our resolve, by trying to penetrate the caricatures (such as "terrorist") that always pop up in the wake of an act of war. If not useful today, knowlege and understanding might be useful in preventing another stike in the future.
It might even result in our ability to live peacefully, rather than as permanenet hunter-gatherers--hunting down terrorists and killing them all.
He has not been delegated to "represent" Islam by any political or religious authority as we understand "authority".
Rather, he is functioning remarkably like the tribes and gangs of young men who swept across Northern Africa and pushed into Europe eons ago "inspired" to convert or kill the infidel by sword and fire.
The war that we are going to wage is almost a Twilight Zone war: Consciousnesses eons apart--and yet maybe not so far as I think. I just heard President Bush say that we were going on a "crusade". He tripped over the word and seemed uncomfortable using it. Perhaps he was conscious that we are being draggged back "through a glass darkly" onto a turf that our modern, secular armed forces are not prepared to fight--900 AD.
Bin Laden, and the thousands of Bin Ladens that will spring up like dragon's teeth when we strike him down, has some advantages in this latest round of a 1300 round fight. But we have a few "dragon's teeth" in our head too, I dare say.
I just want to know how "The Last Remaining Superpower On Earth" found itself in this absurd, bloody disaster I resolutely resist succumbing to the "easy" explanation........
Kudos!
Kudos!
Kudos!
Kudos!
Kudos!
Take time to read this transcript of PBS documentary, and watch it if they rebroadcast.
Most telling comment (paraphrased): "It's not our principles they hate, it's us."
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