RE: Do Not Participate in the Ill Considered "Peace" Rally

["Steve Cooke" <scooke@uidaho.edu>]

Dear Douglas,
	If we follow the policy of 'an eye for an eye' then don't we just end up w/
a lot of one-eyed people?
Compared to Hitler and Tojo, the current crop of bad guys is a lot of pretty
small potatoes. If the US is not careful we could end up looking like a
colossal bully, full of righteous indignation with little sense of
proportion or historical perspective.
I think it would be good if the US not only got the bad guys w/ a maximum
respect for civilians, but also installed a stable and democratic government
in Afghanistan. To me carpet bombing this desperately poor country only
feeds into a bully image on the one hand, and a coward image for not being
willing to land ground forces on the other. This feeds the distain for the
US that led to the terrorism in the first place.
I am for a more subtle and sophisticated approach that achieves our purposes
of 1) bringing the bad guys to justice, 2) reestablishing US prestige
through courage and intelligence, and 3) creating a strong, stable, and
democratic ally in Afghanistan. For example, where is the US support for
democratic opposition leaders to the Taliban and why do we not hear from
their spokespeople? When is the US going to establish a base of operation
w/in Afghanistan that works in concert w/ allied Afghan forces? When are we
going to arrest bin Laden and his lieutenants and put them on trial?
A tall order? Not any taller than the US faced in Dec. 1941 I would say and
we came out of that conflict a world leader through v. intelligent and
courageous action and leadership. Perhaps this is another point in history
to show the strength of a democracy in a time of crisis. Or are we still
struggling w/ our Viet Nam hangover, never to awake?
	Is this a call for a peace? To paraphrase Dilbert, I am not against war; I
am against stupidity and cowardice. (See Tim Ewers post to this list on Oct.
4)
Steve Cooke

-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas Whitney [mailto:dwhitney@moscow.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2001 9:02 AM
To: Duncan Palmatier; Vision2020@moscow.com
Subject: Re: Do Not Participate in the Ill Considered "Peace" Rally

Good for you Duncan. If  these people were really for peace, why were'nt
they demostrating against the terrorists on Sept 12? They seem to be
hypocrites to me, along with a couple of other things.

Doug
----- Original Message -----
From: "Duncan Palmatier" <dpalm@earthlink.net>
To: <Vision2020@moscow.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2001 7:29 PM
Subject: Do Not Participate in the Ill Considered "Peace" Rally


> Margaret Howe wrote:
>
>
> >... we hope to
> >promote unity in the peace process as well as to further eludicate the
> >United States' impact in Global Politics and the ways in which we too
> are
> >also terrorists...
> >
>
> (Emphasis mine)
>
> Dear Vision2020 and artists and citizens of Moscow:
>
> For my part, especially at this time when we rally our support for our
> country and all the people of the world, I write in this forum to
> encourage you NOT to participate in such an ill considered display. We
> Americans are not terrorists. We are good people, and reticent, and
> restrained, and generous, and, by contrast with our enemies, we are
> tolerant, and forgiving to the point of fault.
>
> We sought no war.
>
> But, we now have enemies we must face, lest all our ideals of equality
> and justice be foresworn.
>
> Those enemies killed our friends and relatives and countrymen and
> strangers as they started an ordinary day of work.
>
> Despicable and loathsome and cruel and stupid and unjust and idiotic and
>
> lunatic and intolerable.
>
> They killed our peace; so, must they also see us put aside our peace and
>
> reticence and tranquility, and they must see us go to war against them.
>
> Do not participate in this silly rally.
>
> Instead, rally for the equality and justice and peace that we Americans
> will now defend.
>
> Duncan Palmatier
>
>
>