xmca@weber.ucsd.edu writes:
>The facts are that at least one, and probably several fundamentalist
>Islamic groups have declared war in word and in deed on the United States
>with the express plan of using terrorism against civilians. If you
>follow European affairs, you will know that over the years there have
>been many terror bombings there, too, on both the Continent and in the
>UK. Terrorism against civilians has become an ongoing threat, and not
>just is Western nations. Sri Lanka, for example, has had a similar
>situation for many years with Tamil military groups.
exactly!! - yes. i am feeling, certainly afraid, but i still feel i can
disseminate terrorism as an attack on civilians - not to say anyone is
innocent, but that an understanding of terrorism involves thinking beyond
the US... gracia.
>
>
>Whatever may be thought by people living in safe (?) countries like
>Canada and New Zealand, the situation now is that the United States is at
>war, and not a war that we declared. Whatever the root causes of that
>war, it is not at a point of "OK, we fix the causes (as if they were so
>simple to fix) and then the war will go away." The war is here.
>Independent of Bush. Independent of Israel/Palestinian conflict.
you know, on tuesday, in much confusion, i wrote that the hijackings and
attacks amounted to an act of war -
and you are right - it exceeds our understandings of current foreign
policy.
> Bin
>Laden himself has proclaimed that his major grudge against the US came
>from the stationing of American troops on holy Saudi land during the Gulf
>War and the resulting desecration of Islamic values. He also wants to
>bring down all secularist Muslim governments. This is not a situation
>that can be "fixed" like you fix your SUV when it breaks down.
this is confusion to me - he will, of course, denounce the attacks... but
does that absolve his involvement?
i don't know.
>
>
>We in the US have a nasty but unavoidable problem. We have to wage a war
>to keep our people from being slaughtered, and we have to do it without
>overstepping the bounds of morality and common decency while having as
>president someone I personally think isn't fit to drive a bus, much less
>manage the only remaining superpower.
i'm no republican, but i have to admit, thus far, Bush has done nothing to
indicate his incompetence - America votes for a paternalistic leader, and
Bush has played the role of the father, daddy, very well.
frankly, i am not convinced of his incompetence, yet.
>
>Pretending we aren't at war is only going to complicate the real issue -
>dealing with taking necessary military action in ways which are both
>effective and moral.
i can't imagine - and this is my limitation - how any act of war can have
moral implications...
>Note that I am not a pacifist - I believe that
>killing in self defense is justified - but that there are moral and
>immoral ways of conducting wars. We are going to go in to get Bin Laden
>and we are going to kill him and every one of his terror group we can get
>- and we are right. What we will not do, I hope, is do it in such a way
>that Afghani civilians, who Heaven knows have suffered enough already,
>will further suffer. The US government is already modulating its public
>stance to one of "the right action at the right time." There are
>enough real professionals in the White House that Bush will be
>restrained. If you follow the news, you will notice that almost
>everybody is becoming less hotheaded. Realism is setting in - and the
>knowledge that things are going to be tough for a long time to come.
oh dear. i admit that for me a pacifist position involves understanding,
not reciprocative violence - it is never okay for anyone to die, and i
think phil graham expressed this - one act of madess does not legitimize
an equal act of madness, does it?
>
>
>If anyone finds this offensive, so be it. Just remember that these
>people are just as willing to kill fellow Muslims who don't agree with
>them as they're ready to kill me (and maybe you). Non"fundamentalist"
>Muslims are in danger too, and less able to do anything about it because
>of cultural and family ties, and Muslim governments are hindered by the
>terrorist groups in their own countries (Remember the assassination of
>Anwar Sadat, and the attempts on Mubarak's life.) Remember that the
>Taliban were NOT elected as the government of Afghanistan. They got
>there by force of arms, and there are still groups fighting them. All
>people are not nice, all people are not reasonable, all people are not
>ready to get along if we just "give them the chance." Some - not many ,
>but enough to make a difference - are ready to kill you and me and the
>nice (Muslim) lady down my block, just because we're citizens of a
>particular country.
i envy your conviction, frankly. perhaps i am a coward.
i just don't think hatred and blaming and finger-pointing is going to make
a difference a this point.
...
diane
>
>Rachel Heckert
>
>On Sun, 16 Sep 2001 14:58:18 -0400 "Eugene Matusov" <ematusov@udel.edu>
>writes:
>> Dear Rachel--
>>
>> cut<
>>
>> You are right that if this tragedy had happened with people I knew,
>> I'd
>> be paralyzed. However, I'd hope that people who are not paralyzed
>> would
>> help to avoid future tragedies like that, especially tragedies that
>> people close to me, living in the same country may be involved. I'd
>> hope
>> that there would be people who would not allow some politicians to
>> hijack the tragedy for their own political purposes that often
>> produce
>> more tragedies like that.
>>
>> In his short term, I can see a pattern of how Bush administration
>> systematically uses, exploits, and promotes crises for its political
>> goals -- economic, energy, and now war. I wonder if this ruling by
>> crises is Bush's way to deal with his lack of mandate in the past
>> election....
>>cut<
>>
>
************************************************************************************
"Waves of hands, hesitations at street corners, someone dropping a
cigarette in a gutter - all are stories. But which is the true story? That
I do not know. Hence I keep my phrases hung like clothes in a cupboard,
waiting for someone to wear them. Thus waiting, thus speculating, making
this note and then another, I do not cling to life."
Virginia Woolf, The Waves, 1931.
(...life clings to me...)
*************************************************************************************
diane celia hodges
university of british columbia, centre for the study of curriculum and
instruction
vancouver, bc
mailing address: 46 broadview avenue, montreal, qc, H9R 3Z2
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Oct 10 2001 - 15:49:17 PDT