[geeks] Re: [rescue] The war begins....

[Ken Hansen]

Josh,

I was hoping to avoid the topic, but a few things you said "provoked me" (in
a good, thoughtful way):

    Let's assume your numbers are correct, if the 90% allow the 10% to
    do the things we attribute to them, how innocent *is* the majority?

    The goal of Operation "Infinite Justice"(?) is to provoke the majority
    os "innocents" into rising up and overthrowing the 10% ruling the
    country. (The US is not so good at picking leaders to Install - think
    about the Marcos, Noriega, and the Shah or Iran - they are usually
    dramatic failures).

    I would be hard-pressed to look at a region like Afganastan or
    Pakistan where people have lived *for ever* and consider it a
    region not financially viable... Who air lifted food to them 500 years
    ago? How have they lived there for so long?

There are those pundits that feel by attacking the Taliban, the "coalition"
is helping to form a clear line between the "rightous" and the
"unrightous" - they may be right, but as others have stated, we could not
let recent acts stand.

It is my sincere hope that we *not* send ground troops into that region -
history is frought with ample proof that this is a bad idea...

Ken

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joshua D Boyd" <jdboyd at cs.millersville.edu>
To: <geeks at sunhelp.org>
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2001 12:40 AM
Subject: [geeks] Re: [rescue] The war begins....


> Lets see.  First, we have dirt poor people.  Maybe 10% are religious
> fanatics.  All of them are literally ruled by who ever displays the most
> military strength in their area.  Oh, and the military according to
> reports from the british and the soviets are just people who live right
> among the civilians and store their armerments among the civilians.  So,
> there aren't really any military targets.  At least not ones that can be
> taken out by bombs without killing more civilians than militia.
>
> Which brings me to one of my other major problems with war.  Except for
> us, most soldiers are there because they were forced to be there, not
> because they want to be.  In many places the threats are more than just
> jail time, but death.  So, we are killing people who people who really had
> no choice to be there.
>
> Anyway, assuming that we killed only soldiers, we would have make them
> martyrs most likely.  Just serving to further unite the fanatical 10%, and
> perhaps add to their numbers.
>
> I'd suggest that co-opting the government and installing one more friendly
> to us might be a good idea, but it is such a forsaken piece of earth that
> I'm not sure it is possible to make the place econically support itself.
>
> I don't know what the answer is.  But the answer being put forth doesn't
> seem to me that it would be effective at anything other than making the
> polititians look like they acted strongly.
>
> --
> Joshua D. Boyd
> _______________________________________________
> GEEKS:  http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/geeks


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