All Bets Are ON

[Grlygrl201@aol.com]

In a message dated Sat, 9 Mar 2002  2:37:49 PM Eastern Standard Time, Ciamac Moallemi <ciamac@alum.mit.edu> writes:

> 
> On Saturday, March 9, 2002, at 08:15 AM, Grlygrl201@aol.com wrote:
> >
> > Of course, my first reaction was "How the hell did this get leaked?"  
> > My second: "Is this responsible reporting?"
> 
> Because the administration wanted it leaked, of course. Why else would a 
> report on a topic this sensitive have large unclassified portions.  It 
> fits perfectly into the "crazier than thou" theory of US foreign policy 

I'll buy that, and I'll even pay too much for it.  I don't believe, however, that our failure to punish the murderers of Americans emboldened anyone to attack us.  That INDIVIDUALS perpetrated the act means only that individuals did what no COUNTRY would dare.  This was, after all, a suicide mission.

I have a different explanation for what happened 9/11. It was not some weakness of ours, as the NYT editorial argues, that courted disaster; rather, the disparity (if I may use so mild a euphemism) of power - THEIR weakness - engendered rage. The Al Queda terror attack was a TANTRUM: in the style of the LA race riots of the early 90's, rage found vent. 

Tantrums are futile, as parents (or cops or any other power-wielder) know, but kids (or minorities or Al Queda) value them for their power to disrupt.  Instead of deterring more attacks, upping the power ante could trigger them.  

That said, if Al Queda were my two-year old kid, I'd spank him silly.

Geege


> Because the critics are missing the larger point, which is this: Sept. 11
> happened because America had lost its deterrent capability. We lost it 
> because
> for 20 years we never retaliated against, or brought to justice, those 
> who
> murdered Americans. From the first suicide bombing of the U.S. Embassy in
> Beirut in April 1983, to the bombing of the Marine barracks at the Beirut
> airport a few months later, to the T.W.A. hijacking, to the attack on 
> U.S.
> troops at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, to the suicide bombings of two 
> U.S.
> embassies in East Africa, to the attack on the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen, 
> innocent
> Americans were killed and we did nothing.
> 
> So our enemies took us less and less seriously and became more and more
> emboldened. Indeed, they became so emboldened that a group of 
> individuals -
> think about that for a second: not a state but a group of individuals -
> attacked America in its own backyard. Why not? The terrorists and the 
> states
> that harbor them thought we were soft, and they were right. They thought 
> that
> they could always "out-crazy" us, and they were right. They thought we 
> would
> always listen to the Europeans and opt for "constructive engagement" with
> rogues, not a fist in the face, and they were right.
> 
> America's enemies smelled weakness all over us, and we paid a huge price 
> for
> that. There is an old bedouin legend that goes like this: An elderly 
> Bedouin
> leader thought that by eating turkey he could restore his virility. So he
> bought a turkey, kept it by his tent and stuffed it with food every day. 
> One
> day someone stole his turkey. The Bedouin elder called his sons together 
> and
> told them: "Boys, we are in great danger. Someone has stolen my turkey."
> "Father," the sons answered, "what do you need a turkey for?"
> 
> "Never mind," he answered, "just get me back my turkey." But the sons 
> ignored
> him and a month later someone stole the old man's camel. "What should we 
> do?"
> the sons asked. "Find my turkey," said the father. But the sons did 
> nothing,
> and a few weeks later the man's daughter was raped. The father said to 
> his
> sons: "It is all because of the turkey. When they saw that they could 
> take my
> turkey, we lost everything."
> 
> America is that Bedouin elder, and for 20 years people have been taking 
> our
> turkey. The Europeans don't favor any military action against Iraq, Iran 
> or
> North Korea. Neither do I. But what is their alternative? To wait until 
> Saddam
> Hussein's son, Uday, who's even a bigger psychopath than his father, has
> bio-weapons and missiles that can hit Paris?
> 
> No, the axis-of-evil idea isn't thought through - but that's what I like 
> about
> it. It says to these countries and their terrorist pals: "We know what 
> you're
> cooking in your bathtubs. We don't know exactly what we're going to do 
> about
> it, but if you think we are going to just sit back and take another dose 
> from
> you, you're wrong. Meet Don Rumsfeld - he's even crazier than you are."
> 
> There is a lot about the Bush team's foreign policy I don't like, but 
> their
> willingness to restore our deterrence, and to be as crazy as some of our
> enemies, is one thing they have right. It is the only way we're going to 
> get
> our turkey back.
> 
> 
> 
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