X-Message-Number: 17641
From: 
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 19:13:55 EDT
Subject: Stop our terrorism first

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     To fight terrorism, first we must get rid of US terrorism. Let's not 
forget that it was the US that blew up a pharmaceutical factory in the 
poverty-stricken Sudan because our President had an affair with an intern. 
Our blockade against the poor of Iraq (we don't blockade Saddam, he is 
allowed to sell enough oil to keep himself in houris) is another case in 
point, which we are now duplicating by trying to force Pakistan to cut off 
food and fuel for the poor of Afghanistan. Blockades selectively kill 
children and the powerless, including opposition ethnic groups who don't have 
access to oil money. These pseudo-blockades keep dictators in power by giving 
them a monopoly on trade. Of course most dictators around the world get US 
aid anyway, both directly and through bank "loans" which are paid off by the 
Fed when the dictator defaults (all completely legal under the Monetary 
Control and Banking Deregulation Act of 1980.) Bush himself just gave the 
Taliban government 43 million dollars this May, according to the LA Times. 
The Bush administration justified this Aid to Dependent Dictators as part of 
the Drug War, which in this case means exterminating villagers in the north 
of Afghanistan who are against the Taliban (and allegedly cultivate poppies 
to buy their weapons.)
    On the other side, we need to actually fight terrorism, not just try to 
make it look like the government is "doing something" by putting on ludicrous 
security measures like banning silverware in airports. One policy that should 
be adopted is arming the flight crews and attendants. The Israelis have made 
good use of armed security on aircraft for a long time.
    Of course the somber truth is that airline terrorism is trivial compared 
to blowing up dams, releasing viruses, nerve gas, secondhand Kazakhstan 
nukes, etc., and many other means of attack that don't even require suicidal 
fanaticism. But the emotional response now is going to focus on airliners as 
though they were our only problem, and arming the flight crews will do 
something concrete about terrorism without destroying our own freedoms.


 

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