Anti-americans everywhere

[Jasper Fidget]

Agreed, but how?  We determine to radically increase the quality of their
lives--they need to be fed, clothed, housed, and taught to do these things
for themselves somehow (difficult since they live in a generally lousy
environment--they have oil, but that's all controlled by guys who won't
happily give any of it up, and it's not in the entire region anyway); they
need to be educated, in order to remove the repressive scourge of the
fundamental factions of their religion, in order to repair shattered ideas
of morality.  This strategy does not come cheaply, fine, but neither does it
obviate the necessity of the use of weapons--there are despotic regimes that
will need to be removed before the tools of commerce and education (and, I
would add, Capitalism) can be employed.  (I hope nobody believes dropping
money into Taliban bank accounts is going to change anything.)  Then there
is the basic problem of Israel, which is an issue--to every side--that is
not going to go away (not without, as the article says, the "escalation the
extremists must be hoping for").

It's so easy to point out the problems, I see it every day, on this very
list not least of all.  But what is the solution?  What is the solution that
prevents another 9/11 on 10/11 and then again on 12/11, and so on?  I want
all the smart guys who point out all the problems to tell me, what's the
solution???  Because for now, right now in the real world, there are people
determined to kill us.  And the only way I can see to counter that threat is
to kill them first.  It's simple: it's called war.  It's a matter of Empire
imposing its authority to fully control the region, then increasing the
quality of life there, not unlike the way the Romans once did.  Not an easy
solution by any means, but it is a solution.  Face it, the future is a scary
place now.

Jasper Fidget


----- Original Message -----
From: "Paolo Cavallo" <ton0621 at iperbole.bologna.it>
To: "Pynchon List" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2001 6:11 AM
Subject: Anti-americans everywhere


> From the current issue's Editorial of New Scientist.
> http://www.newscientist.com/
>
>
============================================================================
=========
> The US and its allies have to take tough action. But each move will have
to be precise and
> measured if they are to avoid the type of escalation the extremists must
be hoping for.
> And in the long run, the most effective way to eradicate suicide attackers
is to eradicate
> the causes of terrorism.
>
> This is a sensitive issue. Nobody - repeat, nobody - could ever deserve
what happened to
> the people in New York and Washington, and nothing excuses the attackers.
But that does
> not mean we must submit to the fundamentalism which says that merely to
suggest terrorism
> is rooted in political and economic factors is anti-American or an offence
to the victims.
>
> Not a bit of it. The Middle East is full of terror groups and full, too,
of poverty,
> suffering and political repression. To say the two are unconnected is
fanciful.
> Downtrodden, uneducated Arab boys on the street are far more likely than
their
> comfortable, educated counterparts to see suicide bombers as warrior
heroes and role
> models.
>
> Somehow - and it won't be easy - we must ensure that they acquire a stake
in the world.
> Only then will they stop seeing the West as an enemy intent on exploiting
them. And to do
> that, of course, we must be sure it isn't.
>
============================================================================
=========
>
> ============================================================
> Paolo Cavallo                 " I am a teacher at heart, and
>                           there are moments in the classroom
>                            when I can hardly hold the joy. "
>                                         P. J. Palmer, 1998
> paolo.cavallo at iperbole.bologna.it
> http://www.alberghetti.it/paolo.cavallo/pc.htm
> ============================================================
>
>