Posted on 09/27/2001 9:04:30 AM PDT by Illbay
I'm not sure I concede that you psephological and cultural expertise is superior to mine, but even if it were, what is, and what should be, front and center, in the American mind, are not always co-extensive. And I do expect those that intend to be taken seriously, to lay out the endgame of their proposed policies, and how and why that endgame is reasonably to be anticipated. To just advocate how the first pond should be moved on the chessboard, and then take a bye on the balance of how the game should be played, and can be anticipated to play out, is really not very interesting, nor useful. JMO.
What is at stake today is nothing less than the survival of our civilization. There may be some who would have thought a week ago that to talk in these apocalyptic terms about the battle against international terrorism was to engage in reckless exaggeration. No longer. Each one of us today understands that we are all targets, that our cities are vulnerable, and that our values are hated with an unmatched fanaticism that seeks to destroy our societies and our way of life.
Some of you may find it hard to believe that Islamic militants truly cling to the mad fantasy of destroying America. Make no mistake about it. They do. And unless they are stopped now, their attacks will continue, and become even more lethal in the future.
When in 1996, I wrote a book about fighting terrorism I wrote, the consequences could be not a car bomb but a nuclear bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center. Well, they did not use a nuclear bomb. They used two 150 ton fully fueled jetliners to wipe out the Twin Towers. But does anyone doubt that given the chance, they will throw atom bombs at America and its allies? And perhaps long before that, chemical and biological weapons?
This is the greatest danger facing our common future. Some states of the terror network already possess chemical and biological capabilities, and some are feverishly developing nuclear weapons. Can one rule out the possibility that they will be tempted to use such weapons, openly or through terror proxies, or that their weapons might fall into the hands of the terrorist groups they harbor?
Good evening.
Very good reply.The only thing I would add is in addition to America is the rest of the non- Islamic world.
Read back over my posts. You'll find it. It takes a bit of effort, but if you would suspend your bloviating, you would have the necessary energy for it.
I'm not sure what part of "it isn't any of our business" you fail to understand.
Can you lay out the details of our elaborate foreign policy with regard to the primitive Tasaday people of the Phillipines?
If not, I suggest that you must know nothing about foreign policy.
This isn't hard for me to believe at all, and it never was. Did they not attempt to destroy the WTC in 1993? Did not the followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini declare the U.S. to be "the Great Satan" way back in 1979?
How about Lockerbie? The Achille Lauro? Those are just a couple of incidents where Americans wound up on the short end of fanatical terror.
Mr. Netanyahu is a clever man, but he insults our intelligence with such statements. And in the end, what he wants us to believe is that ISRAEL'S problems are OUR problems.
The TRUTH is, however, that world terror is far more focused on the U.S. than it is on his tiny little stump of a nation. They have their problems, sure, but so does Great Britain with the IRA. In both cases, their problems are close to home.
Meanwhile the U.S. is the focus of global terror on a MASSSIVE scale.
But both Israel and India, to name just two, would like for us to come in and "solve" their local problems.
My point is that "maybe we will, and maybe we won't." What will be the deciding factor? AMERICAN interests. I think we've about done with being the world's policeman.
I don't know the exact figures, but the qualitative answer is "far too much if these governments plot to harm us."
One thing is for sure: neither Saudi Arabia nor Kuwait has ever attacked us or coopted our citizens to spy for them.
Hell..I'm converting to Judaism and moving to Israel!
I am sure you are right. It was an honest mistake.
That is so stupid of you, it is not worth answering.
I don't believe that I said anything about genocide. What I did say is that if we level Baghdad and make it clear that the capitals of the other Arab states that sponsor terrorists are next, I think that would send a clear message. Everything would change. Right now the Arabs see us as weak and unwilling to even defend our own people. We need to prove to them that we can if necessary be as ruthless as they are. The Arab mind is twisted in that way. Killing innocents and civilians is seen as a sign or courage and a badge of honor worthy of respect. Sooner of later we need to come to that or we will remain targets and continue having our people killed needlessly. That's the reality that we are, or are not as it seems, dealing with.
Richard W.
I was pretty sure Goliath was a descendant of the Nephilim, though I did not know he had 4 brothers. It may happen again, and the sons of God may very well be on a collision course with the saints of God. Keep watch.
And I'm not sure 54% of the GNP figure is that high when you consider what Israel spends on defense. The US spends what on defense - 5%? Israel probably spends 20% or more as a wild guess.
Finally, you really do have an interesting technique for winning friends and influencing people. Just keep spewing out the vinegar at everyone in sight.
I assume they must have hated Europeans, or they probably would not have tried to invade them.Since we "invaded" North and South America, that must mean that we did it because we "hated" the indigenous peoples that lived here, right?
IOW, and for your information, the Moorish "invasion" of Iberia was on the same basis. They poured into the area and built cities and industries, and a magnificent culture. In fact, this was the ONE AND ONLY TIME AND PLACE in European history that Jews were not only tolerated but allowed to flourish.
But in the late Fifteenth Century, their Most Catholic Majesties Ferdinand and Isabella threw the Moors out of Spain, and established Roman Catholicism for once and for all in Spain.
And you might have heard of The Inquisition, which among other things killed or forcibly "converted" tens of thousands of Jews, for the crime of being Jews.
Now, who was it hated WHO, again?
Even though there might be some among us who favor this approach, since we are a pluralistic society it will not now, nor will ever happen.
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