Dear Rachel--
Thanks a lot for your reply and bringing a level of complexity. I agree
with majority of our points. I also find a few points for respectful
disagreement:
1. "The war is here." I'm not sure that it is useful to qualify this
terrible terrorist act as "war" exactly because war phraseology may
provoke inappropriate military actions as it was in past and not only in
US (e.g., Russia and Israel).
2. "There are enough real professionals in the White House that Bush
will be restrained." I have not seen those "real professionals" in any
of crises that Bush was involved (e.g., in the recent energy crisis in
CA).
3. " If you follow the news, you will notice that almost everybody is
becoming less hotheaded." Yes, I noticed some positive development but
it was mainly among common people and community leaders. Unfortunately
politicians and especially officials of Bush administration continue war
drum beating and sweeping rhetoric of destroying countries and peoples.
What do you think?
Eugene
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Karen R Heckert [mailto:heckertr@juno.com]
> Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2001 4:59 PM
> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: Re: New York City
>
> Eugene, this is a very complex issue and has to be further analyzed
than
> just "What is that bum in the White House doing?" Personally, I don't
> believe Bush is a legitimate president, and he does have a record of
> picking fights - with Putin, with China, etc. and you are almost
> certainly right when you say he will in fact try to "hijack" this
> situation for his own advantage.
>
> However.
>
> 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.
>
> 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. 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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. 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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<
> >
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