Terrorism and Propaganda

[barbara100 at jps.net]

I tortured myself and read this again. Heaven knows why.  But look what I
found the second time:

"Terrorism of this kind was something which had to be actively stopped, not
politely reasoned with. (I'm beginning to think the same about Doug, too.)"

Do you see it? He's talking about terrorism in past tense.  It WAS something
that HAD TO BE STOPPED.  As if it's been stopped.  This is the saddest case
of denial I've ever seen close up.  On the radio today I heard a whole
slew of abortion clinics around the country received anthrax in the mail.
I feel less secure every day the bombs drop over Afghanistan.  Now they'll
be justified all over again in their terror.  And then we in ours. And they
in theirs. And we in ours. And they in theirs. And we in ours. How long's it
been going on like this? When will it ever stop? When we win or when they
win?
Or when enough of us on both sides say stop?
STOP!





----- Original Message -----
From: jbor <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2001 3:38 PM
Subject: Re: NP Terrorism and Propaganda


> quail at libyrinth.com wrote:
>
> > So, overlooking the fact that bombing the Taliban is not tactically a
move to
> > halt Anthrax -- obvious, I should think -- what are the right tactics?
Because
> > Lord knows, the second the government starts messing with the mail, or
any
> > freedoms, you will be the first to start squawking. To be honest, I
haven't
> > heard you offer any solutions except appeasement, inaction, or praying
that
> > things just go away through diplomacy.
>
> The propaganda and terror campaign from Osama's network is intended to
> create fear and havoc in the West, and thus destabilise the U.S. and its
> allies politically, economically and socially. Doug, whatever his motives,
> is trying to do exactly the same thing. Bush and his advisors and other
U.S.
> leaders, thankfully, have recognised the psychological war being wrought
by
> this quite evil little man (Osama, not Doug) and his disciples, the
attempt
> to hit at transport and media communications systems (with the Anthrax
> letters) in particular, and have sensibly used leadership to create calm
and
> resilience and to urge people to continue with work and leisure activities
> (i.e. shopping etc) to prevent the descent into civil disobedience and
> social chaos which the enemy (OK, both Osama and Doug) wants.
>
> Both, because Doug, who was and is only using the terrorist attacks as
> another pretext for his ongoing propaganda war against Bush, is out to do
> much the same thing. Whatever Bush had done in the wake of the attacks
Doug
> would be denouncing it now, because his single, selfish agenda is to
> discredit Bush. I'm thankful that Doug has Zero credibility. It's not just
> his rhetorical mode which is offensive, it's the idiocy of his arguments
as
> well. The sort of appeasement and civil liberties he's called for would
have
> allowed more trained terrorists more access to more planes with thousands,
> maybe hundreds of thousands more perishing. Terrorism of this kind was
> something which had to be actively stopped, not politely reasoned with.
(I'm
> beginning to think the same about Doug, too.)
>
> In this country we are very well-informed, as I assume Americans,
Canadians,
> Germans, Britons etc are also. For example, we saw the video footage of
> Osama's general announcing last week that there would be more plane
attacks,
> the propaganda machine at work. We've seen the footage of bomb destruction
> in Afghanistan, the site of the food drops (no children being blown to
> bits), the busload of foreign journalists allowed by the Taliban to
inspect
> the site of the *one* smart bomb that went astray from its target. It's
the
> fact that we in Western democracies have freedom in the press and freedom
of
> speech that we have access to these facts. Many people in other places
> haven't had this luxury, and still don't, which is an aspect of the
> repressiveness of their political regimes. It's called propaganda, and it
> equates exactly to the kind of misinformation and hysteria-mongering which
> Doug peddles, and is just as heinous.
>
> What next? Perhaps some idiot'll send in a fake "news" photo to "prove"
his
> lies true. Message to kwp: if you're going to become a competent
> propagandist it'd be an idea to save the photo you've doctored in a file
> format other than Adobe PhotoShop. Powell is going to India to try to
broker
> a peace deal on the war in Kashmir, more credit to him, whether you
approve
> of it or not.
>
> best
>
>
>
>
>