Xah Lee's Unixism

[Morten Reistad]

In article <4149B516.17F7F078 at yahoo.com>,
CBFalconer  <cbfalconer at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>Chuck Dillon wrote:
>> 
>... snip ...
>> 
>> Going into Iraq was IMHO justified without consideration of 9/11
>> or the war on terror.  Setting up a more democratic and educated
>> Afghanistan and Iraq blows a big whole in Islam's isolation
>> efforts and forces them to deal with the reality of the 21st
>> century.  The process will be bumpy but we can no longer be
>> patient when the mainstream of Islam allow violence on the scale
>> of 9/11 or beyond to occur.
>
>I disagree.  Afghanistan, yes.  Chasing Bin Laden, yes.  They were
>the direct cause of 9/11 (which was not a unique occurance, except
>in degree).  Iraq, no.  That was the descendent of "avenge
>disrespect to Daddy" syndrome, and has been shown to have no
>connection with either 9/11 nor with WMDs.  

The adversary is easy to describe, if not to find. He (and almost
certainly he is male) is strongly idelogical and religous; and
can be very patient. The ideology far transcends the national part.

This fits Afghanistan like a glove. It fits Sudan and the (now
expelled) Yemenis. It fits a lot of Pakistan; and almost all of Iran.

Saddam however was a "dictator classic". His system looked
more like a South American strongman like Stroessner than 
Al-Quada. So does the Assad family in Syria, and Ghadaffi's; and
Burma. Even North Korea may have slid into this camp.

Pakistan, Algeria and Lebanon have had lethal fights between the
"dictator classics" and the islamic revolutionaries. None look
very appealing; but at least the "dc" does not send bombs to
the west as long as we keep shipping the caviar. 

On another note we have three countries spiralling into
internal destruction so fast they may implode alltogether. They
are Sudan, North Korea and Turkmenistan. 

As the US Army seems to have enourmous problems in Iraq, rapidly
becoming another Vietnam in scale, up to ten other spots may
require a rapid reaction force. 

We europeans have better saddle up; the US is going to be so
bogged down they will be stuck.

>The whole business has effectively ended the punishment phase of
>9/11 and justified it in the minds of many Moslems.  For a short
>while there was an opportunity to do an exemplary job in
>Afghanistan and show the Islamic world the possibilities.  That
>has been thrown away by our Glorious Inept Leaders.

I don't lament that so much. It is impossible to satisfy people
that have decided otherwise, and Afghanistan was going to be a tough
one anyhow. 

But I am a lot more worried that the western alliance is unable to
project power even against a militarily beaten people like Iraq. 

-- mrr