Letters to the Editor
cabdriver
Published Letters: 312 Editor's Choice: 6
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At least some of the war-mongers knew what would happen...
[Read the article: Taking stock of the war on terror]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...it's what they wanted.
Global Terror War successes, Bush Administration style:
1) Assuring that George W. Bush would be taken seriously as chief executive- check
2) Putting political opposition on the defensive so that questions about the historical role of the Bush Dynasty in American politics are off the front burner- check
3) Enabling George W. Bush Jr. re-election- check
4) Reviving warfare state to revive the Military-Industrial Complex- check
5) Playing the opposition party for chumps- check
6) Concentrating political power in the hands of presidential autocracy- (conditional- presently unfinished)
7) Dismantling the Bill of Rights- (still on course, despite some temporary reverses)
8) Strengthening identification of patriotism with militarism- check
9) Psychological warfare on the American citizenry through use of double-bind mind games, cognitive dissonance, and duplicity coupled with appeals to both emotions of fear and conditioned loyalties to State authority- check
10) Use of war-torn foreign nation as testing ground for mass surveillance technologies such as facial recognition technology- check
11) Use of American military personnel in no-knock searches and raids- check
12) Exploitation of loyalties of American military personnel to participate/approve/order/cover up torture and war crimes- check
13) running up Federal debt as a fait accomplit, to the point where spending for budget priorities except for military and police is increasingly viewed as "unaffordable"- check
14) Dress rehearsals by military and police for forcible containment of massive societal disruptions due to decades of neglect of environmental priorities and decayed national infrastructure- check
I suppose I could go on.
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The ends don't justify the means.
[Read the article: Is Briana Waters a terrorist?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'll repeat that-
The ends don't justify the means.
It's really that simple, for me.
Anyone who thinks otherwise still has to take responsibility for their own acts of violence, coercion or fraud. They might wholeheartedly think/feel that the end justifies the means- but it's too much to expect sympathy from their adversaries, or from those who don't share their personal commitment. Once you start playing for keeps, you accept the consequences.
Firebombing isn't play-war. It's playing with fire. Whatever the supposed nobility of the motivation.
A book I'm fond of recommending to all those flirting with the seductions of violent terrorism- The Demon Lover, by Robin Morgan http://tinyurl.com/ywp3w2
Not that I buy into every last view of the author- but there are insights in there that I've never found anyone to put better. Robin Morgan lays it on the line. There's one hell of a shadow between the expressed ideals/goals of terrorists, and the actual satisfactions of committing terrorism. (click my signature for link)
I recommend that anyone doing governmental resistance give anyone in their circles advocating violence a wide, wide berth- even if the target is "only property." And try to grasp the fact that provocateurs shilling unethical means are BOTH a proven method of discrediting all facets of a given political or social activist movement- AND an arguably defensible tactic by law enforcement to attract and identify the violence-prone before they do serious damage. There is a point where such police tactics turn into indefensible entrapment- but I think it's reckless for the politically active to get anywhere near that edge, from the other side. You don't want to make it easy for them. The best defense for a victim of entrapment is innocence.
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...
[Read the article: Tactics of the right-wing noise machine]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"It's the difference between Left and Right. Conservatives think that liberals are mistaken. LIberals believe conservatives are evil and haters."
Have a few recently published book titles:
Deliver Us from Evil : Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism by Sean Hannity
Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism by Ann Coulter
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning by Jonah Goldberg
The Enemy Within: Saving America from the Liberal Assault on our Schools, Faith, and Military by Michael Savage
That took about 5 minutes to hunt up.
I'll spare you the results of a quote search. There are too many of them.
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since you asked...
[Read the article: Is Briana Waters a terrorist?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Eric Robert Rudolph (born September 19, 1966), also known as the Olympic Park Bomber, is an American Christian terrorist,[2][3] who committed a series of bombings across the southern United States, which killed three people and injured at least 150 others. He declared that his bombings were part of a guerrilla campaign against abortion and what he describes as "the homosexual agenda." He spent years as the FBI's most wanted criminal fugitive, but was eventually caught. In 2005 Rudolph pleaded guilty to numerous federal and state homicide charges and accepted five consecutive life sentences in exchange for avoiding a trial and the death penalty. Rudolph was connected with the Christian Identity movement;[3] today, he self-identifies as a Catholic.[4]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Robert_Rudolph (click link at my signature)
Mind you, I don't think much of a defense of someone's violent actions that bases itself on allegations of the impunity or leniency provided to others involved in similar conduct. I think it's an invalid and irrelevant misdirection. But in this case, you don't even seem to know your history.