--- "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com> wrote:
[permanent holy war] Steve Thompson
True, but there's a question of the waste of resources and man-years that would come from such a circumstance.
All the oil money has been wasted, most of the humans in the middle east have suffered poverty, ignorance, lack of freedom and the unproductive absence of useful labor.
Just like the good ol' USA, AFAIK. It's just that the inequities at home aren't limited to those that are a product of the petrochemical industry. All of which is not too different from what I see in the poorer parts of the city I live in: Toronto.
All my life, people have been proposing to solve this problem. Nearly every American president since 1950 announced some big and expensive initiative that would supposedly solve this problem, or make some substantial progress towards a solution.
Lately people were talking about PSE/COA topics which make moot much of the bickering and squabbling that is a constant feature of capitalism. We don't hear much about PSE these days for some reason. I suspect that the path from here to there is still too far beyond the planning horizon of too many people. So, if PSE in a recognizeable form represents a rational outcome of current economic progress, then I guess we must wait until it looms nearer before selling it to the world.
What is your solution?
PSE. And the death of all superstitious nonsense. Of course, there are probably enough people around who like domination games that the elimination of bogus memes such as those attached to theology may prove difficult. Do you have a better idea?
And then there's the ethical[1] side of the coin: do the (largely financial benefits) that might come from a civil war in Iraq really justify the consequent standard-of-living for the residents of Iraq?
And your remedy for improving the standard of living in the arab world is?
Give them more money. Aridrop directv dishes, televisions, and old computers. Hell, I don't know. Winning arab hearts and minds is a topic that is entirely beyond my area of expertise.
Steve Thompson
Aren't we all about to run out of oil soon anyways?
Forty years or so, according to estimates by the more sane and conventional authorities.
And then what? What are we and they going to do the following year? And the year after that? I'm sure your military think-tanks have walked through the scenarios and have a good handle on the likely outcomes, but they aren't really talking at this time. (And of course, I wouldn't trust public military think-tank product to correctly predict the sunrise.)
James A. Donald:
the people who organize large scale terror can be identified, particularly by locals and coreligionists, which is why they have been dying in large numbers in Afghanistan.
Steve Thompson
Um, what planet are you on?
The planet where the Afghans held an election, in which nearly everybody voted, some of them several times, and the Taliban were unable to carry out any of the threats they made against the voters, which indicates that the Afghans have been pretty efficient in killing Taliban.
Ok. That may well be true. And it is a step in the right direction. However I would guess that the long-term stable state of Afghanistan is entirely up in the air. Barring coups and such I guess we'll have to revisit the Afghanistan question in a few decades. At that time, and after they've had a little practice with the democratic process, we'll probably have a much better idea of how well their liberation from the taliban went.
The people who, as you say, organize large scale terror tend to be protected by virtue of large bureaucratic firewalls, legislated secrecy, misdirection (smoke and mirrors), and even taboos.
The average Afghan warlord is untroubled by any of this crap.
I suspect that not many of them get to the civilised portions of the Internet all that often.
He sees someone who looks suspicious, says "Hey, you don't look like you are from around here. What are you doing?" If he does not like the answers, he brings out his skinning knife, and asks a few more questions. If the answers make him even more unhappy, he hands his skinning knife to the womenfolk, and tells them to take their time.
You gotta admire the hands-on leadership style, at the very least.
But perhaps you are not referring to Western terrorists, but are expecting your reader to assume that terrorists always wear turbans, and who generally will live and operate in the Middle-Eastern theatre. Perhaps you have forgotten about the people who planned and executed the operations that helped South-American tyrants form up and train their death- and terror-squads?
The parties that sponsored death squads of Latin America, when victorious, held free and fair elections, which they won, and those they had been fighting lost. The death squads were an response to Soviet sponsored attempts to subjugate, enslave and terrorize Latin America, and when the Soviet Union passed, so did the death squads.
Of course. All the soldiers just packed up and moved on, or retired into the relative and mundane obscurity of civilian life.
It seems most unlikely that Al Quaeda, the Taliban, and the rest, if victorious would hold free and fair elections, or be capable of winning them.
No, I imagine that isn't very likely. So, it is clear that the answer is to bomb the snot out of any country that harbours terrorist warlords. Then, we send in the educators and election facilitators. Correct? Perhaps I am too cynical and in short order, Afghanistan will quickly form up and join the modern age. Regards, Steve ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca