Anthrax--The Four Horsemen are Riding

[Tim May]

Another article I wrote for scruz.general.


>X-From_: tcmay at got.net Sat Feb 21 12:54:42 1998
>X-Delivered: at request of tcmay on always
>Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 12:57:39 -0800
>From: tcmay at got.net (Tim May)
>To: tcmay at got.net
>Subject: Re: Anthrax--The Four Horsemen are Riding
>Newsgroups: scruz.general
>Organization: None
>
>In article <34ee3039.1340384 at cnews.newsguy.com>, mmelpremo at cruzio.com
>(mmelpremo at cruzio.com) wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 19 Feb 1998 10:34:16 -0800, tcmay at got.net (Tim May) wrote:
>>
>> >Cruzans,
>> >
>> >Here's one of my articles to the Cypherpunks list, a list FBI Director
>> >Louis Freeh recently denounced as being a haven for information
>> >terrorists. If I get busted for having a lab which the Feds decide is
>> >thoughtcrime, I want someone in Santa Cruz to know what I think about
>> >these issues.
>> <snip>
>>
>> So, Tim, what do you think ought to be done, (if anything), about
>> Iraq?  Should we stop sanctions and let the Middle East worry about
>> him?  Should we continue sanctions?  Should we forget about UN
>> inspections?
>
>1. Nothing. Ain't my problem, ain't yours, ain't anyone else I know of's.
>
>2. Sanctions almost never work. Sanctions for 38 years on Cuba have had
>almost no effect on Castro except to consolidate his position. (Much as I
>may dislike Castro's policies, no American should be threatened with jail
>time for committing the "crime" of travelling to Cuba, or selling stuff
>they own to Cubans, or buying Cuban cigars, etc. In a free country, which
>neither the U.S. nor Cuba are, one does not criminalize actions which do
>not directly harm other persons.)
>
>3. Bombing Iraq will be unlikely to work this time any more than last
>time(s). I have no energy to recount the info being provided on CNN and
>elsewhere, but consider that the weapons inspectors themselves claimed
>that their work over the past half dozen years had more effect on getting
>rid of weapons than the bombing campaign in 1991 did. Assuming they're not
>lying, how, pray tell, does a lesser bombing than 1991 then solve the
>putative problem?
>
>4. As for the "putative problem," it is indeed putative. So Iraq has
>"weapons of mass destruction." So does Iran. So does Syria. So does
>Israel. And so on, for most of the countries in the world. (Let us not
>rant about how Iraq used WOMD on its own people, or on the Kurds. The Sovs
>used WOMD on the Afghanis...did we threaten to bomb them? How about the
>Chinese? And so on.
>
>5. I repeat, it ain't our problem. Washington (the President, not the
>pesthole) warned us to avoid foreign entanglements and foreign wars, and
>yet the U.S. squanders its money and its soldiers' lives in dozens of
>foreign wars.
>
>(There hasn't been a legitimate war since the Revolution, possibly since
>the War of 1812, in my view.)
>
>>
>> I find myself in the middle on this one.  On the one hand, I think
>> Saddam's a threat to neighboring countries (particularly Kuwait),
>> although I don't know how big a threat.  On the other hand, I agree
>> with you that America should not be Cop of the World.
>
>Countries invade other countries frequently. I didn't see us going to war
>with the Soviet Union over Afghanistan. I didn't see us going to war with
>Israel when it (several times) invaded and occupied the southern part of
>Lebanon.
>
>Ah, but the U.S. likes wars with _little_ countries. Panama, which we
>invaded because our CIA-installed leader was taking too large a share of
>the drug trade. Grenada, because it distracted attention from the 240
>Americans killed a few days before in Lebanon. Nicaragua, because we
>didn't like the leader the people had elected. Somalia, for reasons no one
>seems to be able to articulate. Bosnia, because the Europeans, in whose
>backyard the Balkan states are, decided not to bother.
>
>And so it goes.
>
>--Tim May
>
>--
>Just Say No to "Big Brother Inside"
>---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
>Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
>ComSec 3DES:   408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
>W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
>Higher Power: 2^3,021,377   | black markets, collapse of governments.
>