X-Message-Number: 17563 From: Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 10:34:27 EDT Subject: Proper response to terrorism --part1_17.1b956fc7.28d4c0f3_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The first thing we need to do is get rid of all US-generated terrorism against innocent civilians. Our blockade against the poor of Iraq (We don't blockade Saddam, he can still sell enough oil to keep himself in houris) is a 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 also keep dictators in power by giving them a monopoly on trade. (Of course most dictators around the world get US aid both directly and through bank "loans" which are paid off by the Fed when the dictator defaults.) 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. I think one idea that might actually help is arming the flight crews and attendants. The Israelis haven't had a hijacking for a long time. Even gun-control advocates can support this, I think. Of course the truth is that airline terrorism is trivial compared to blowing up dams, releasing viruses, nerve gas, secondhand Kazakh 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 make people feel better without wiping out civil liberties (which won't do a thing against terrorism; in fact a major reason the recent terrorism succeeded is the FAA rules disarming flight crews.) -Bill --part1_17.1b956fc7.28d4c0f3_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17563