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• The sad part is... (Score:4, Insightful)

  by merlyn (47)

  ... that the right things will now happen for the wrong reasons. Because the American public has been snookered into believing that Saddam played a major role in 9/11, they will believe that "the war is nearly over now!" and go back to work and start playing the markets and investments long instead of short.

  So, life will get better for the US economy, and therefore the world economy, and yet we will be no closer to preventing another Osama Bin Laden attack, at all.

  The right thing happening for all the

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  • Randal L. Schwartz
  • Stonehenge
  • Not sad, because it's not true... (Score:1)

    by jordan (120)

    I think we're further away from another Al Qaeda attack.

    Contrary to the dominant media meme, there are all kinds of things that link Hussein to Al Qaeda and 9/11. Remember Salam Pak [worldnetdaily.com]? The terrorist training camp in Iraq where agents, including reportedly Islamic Fundamentalists, learned to take over commercial jet-liners?

    Or, how about the fact that there's a lots [newsmax.com] of [miis.edu] evidence [fas.org] linking Iraq to the WTC bombing in 1993. Also, the Son of Sheik Rahman, convicted planner of WTC 1993, later turned up as a top Bi
    • Re:Not sad, because it's not true... (Score:2)

      by jdavidb (1361)

      I happen to believe that if those who attack or threaten American consistently get themselves blown back to kingdom come we will in fact be safer because it will be much less likely for people to mount attacks against us. But what do I know -- I also believe swift, consistent punishment for crime will act as a deterrent. Apparently none of these ideas are in vogue any more.

      Ironically, I'm a pacifist. I couldn't personally participate in these actions or directly condone those who do. But I've also got

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      J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers
      • Re:Not sad, because it's not true... (Score:1)

        by mary.poppins (3530) on 2003.12.15 2:51 (#26542) Homepage Journal

        I'm not opposed to war because I think it doesn't work; on the contrary, it seems certain to me that it does.
        
        For some value of "works." For establishing control over natural resources, and forcing people to do what you want, it works some of the time (that is, when things go "well"). As for generally improving the conditions of the people being "liberated" -- well, that depends on the attitude of the liberators' bosses. South Vietnamese who were liberated from the VC only to be rounded up into concentration camps didn't see much of an improvement. Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe was liberated by the Soviets, and ended up having a pretty bad time. In fact, Hungary and Czechoslovakia needed to be "re-liberated".
        
        So it's a matter of what you think the attitude of the "liberating" bosses is. My understanding of things is that people controlling armies rarely have liberty as their main goal. There are exceptions, of course: most notably, the anarchist militias in Spain in 1936, and the Makhnovists in the Ukraine during the Russian Civil War. I don't think it is a coincidence that these military organizations were run in a directly democratic way by the soldiers themselves.
        
        I'd feel a lot better about the US government invading places if the soldiers themselves were in control. Unfortunately, folks like brian d foy have to follow orders.

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        • Re:Not sad, because it's not true... (Score:2)

          by jdavidb (1361)

          For some value of "works."

          Very much agreed, and I meant for that to be implicit! I didn't mean war is the first or best solution to any problem. I guess what I really meant was "war CAN work." And in this case I believe this war will work to achieve the safety of Americans.

          I wasn't really referring to working for liberation of Iraq. I believe that to be a side issue. If Americans simply wanted to liberate Iraq, they should have gone on their own as individual citizens. I believe the only thing t

          --
          J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers