I for one am pleased that the government would even consider a new kind of warfare. Here's why: if we engage in the spy vs. spy methods suggested by the talking heads then we may reduce the collateral damage to civilians populations both here and abroad. It has been our policy to approach war in a symmetrical, tit for tat way. It's been wholly ineffectual with terrorism as the terrorist is often dead already. Terrorism is an asymmetrical type of aggression. Our knee jerk reaction has been to find someone to bomb. But whom do we bomb? If we do what good will it do? The perpetrators will very likely live to strike again anyway (or they don't care if they're killed). Historically, it's the innocent sucker living in that country by an accident of birth that'll get screwed. My hope is that the goal will be for the perpetrators to be brought to an international tribunal for prosecution. It's been suggested recently that some familiar Americans leaders, such as Henry Kissinger, be tried as war criminals. We certainly need to be subject to the same justice as the rest of the world or risk being perceived as an international bully and be further targeted.
I worry, on the other hand, because this kind of warfare most threatens our civil liberties. Our civil liberty is already a causality in terms of coming and going; our privacy will certainly be (has been?) compromised as well. This is necessary to monitory terrorist tools (e-mail, cell, and encrypted files) and get close to terrorist "cells." New laws and better technologies to monitor them are required. This is so because of the nature of the intelligence community whose strong focus it is to gather information. I can live with this (for awhile) if it will save some lives. The bottom line here is that we have to learn to live with terrorism and the inconveniences that that brings with it. With respect to these inconveniences we need to be tolerant. The truncation of my privacy is a short-term sacrifice I'm willing to make. (In fact, if I had to choose between being a causality of some terrorist action or having my boring E-mail examined; I'd choose the later.) I imagine that many people reading this have much more clandestine activities who might best consider suspending these for awhile (or dealing with it). If they get arrested they should get a good lawyer and trust the system; (a sketchy proposition at best!) They probably would have a good case if their privacy were violated under the auspices of the Feds looking for terrorist anyway.
What will likely happen is that we will find someone to bomb the shit out of, as well as truncate our civil rights here at home. Neither will be very effective. The world community will remain involved until they begin to question our foreign policy, then will do whatever we want regardless of world opinion. (Might makes right.) Our war on terrorism will be about as effective as our war on drugs has been.
I agree. How can we as a people be so arrogant as to think that our major export, our stock in trade, militarism and war would not one day visit us at home? It surprising that it took this long!
It's really tragic and heartbreaking on a lot of levels.
Einstein stated that he hated "patriotism upon demand" because it promoted nationalism that in turn creates a 'them & us' mentality. But make no mistake they are us! They are just like us in that they believe that the ends justify the means; just as our government does. Y. Arafat once said that the difference between a soldier and a terrorist is that the solider can afford a plane for his bomb. The Terrorist has to carry his in. We may be smug in our self-righteous "wealth and power" that we pretend we somehow deserve (because we were born into it?) Don't kid yourself; we've been exploiting the peoples of the Middle East for a very long time. Read 'What Uncle Sam Doesn't Want You To Know' by Noam Chomsky. He is notorious for chronicling our interventions in the Middle East and in the third world. He shows how the "wealth and power" we enjoy is built on the backs of these people who for reasons unknown to us actually hate America. Go figure. Dag Hammarskjold believed that exploitation was violence. (He doubted that there could be a politic without violence). I agree, and we have been doing these people violence for a very long time. The kind of hate that it takes to fly a planeload of innocent people in to a crowded place to kill them and yourself doesn't spring up in a vacuum. They've been ruminating on this for a great long while. They are like us in just the same way the Shiite Christian praying for the death of O. Ben Laden is as deluded as the terrorist who thinks he's going to be a martyr. Y. Arafat once said that the difference between a soldier and a terrorist is that the solider can afford a plane for his bomb. The Terrorist has to carry his in.
I love my country, but I suffer under the notion that we should be responsible for the means by which we act as a nation. It's that whole troublesome Judeo-Christian ethic thing. I have no desire to see O. Bin Laden become a martyr at the expense of innocent Afghanistan nationals who are already suffering with a famine and cholera. The US has enough bad karma.
I was also stuck by the casual, low tech, openness of the crime. I had heard that one of the terrorists had his family living with him in Florida as he studied to become a pilot. He sent them back to the Middle East on August 30th and proceeded to put all of his personal belongs and furniture in the garbage. He knew he wouldn't need then any longer.
I was actually comforted by the fact that there were more people involved than initially suspected.
I may be wrong, but my take on this is that it was very low tech. They used box cutters and AOL! I think the problem isn't in finding encrypted messages these guys have left behind. They probably left plenty of the garden-variety. They committed suicide for god's sake, they've probably been operating in relative openness. I think that operate in the mundane, that's how they go so unnoticed. They've reportedly found some messages already on AOL and Earthlink. I doubt any will link them to O. Bin Laden because he probably had nothing to do with them personally, (other than creating the atmosphere they took their cues from and laud their accomplishment for other idiots to follow).
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I for one am pleased that the government would even consider a new kind of warfare. Here's why: if we engage in the spy vs. spy methods suggested by the talking heads then we may reduce the collateral damage to civilians populations both here and abroad. It has been our policy to approach war in a symmetrical, tit for tat way. It's been wholly ineffectual with terrorism as the terrorist is often dead already. Terrorism is an asymmetrical type of aggression. Our knee jerk reaction has been to find someone to bomb. But whom do we bomb? If we do what good will it do? The perpetrators will very likely live to strike again anyway (or they don't care if they're killed). Historically, it's the innocent sucker living in that country by an accident of birth that'll get screwed. My hope is that the goal will be for the perpetrators to be brought to an international tribunal for prosecution. It's been suggested recently that some familiar Americans leaders, such as Henry Kissinger, be tried as war criminals. We certainly need to be subject to the same justice as the rest of the world or risk being perceived as an international bully and be further targeted.
I worry, on the other hand, because this kind of warfare most threatens our civil liberties. Our civil liberty is already a causality in terms of coming and going; our privacy will certainly be (has been?) compromised as well. This is necessary to monitory terrorist tools (e-mail, cell, and encrypted files) and get close to terrorist "cells." New laws and better technologies to monitor them are required. This is so because of the nature of the intelligence community whose strong focus it is to gather information. I can live with this (for awhile) if it will save some lives. The bottom line here is that we have to learn to live with terrorism and the inconveniences that that brings with it. With respect to these inconveniences we need to be tolerant. The truncation of my privacy is a short-term sacrifice I'm willing to make. (In fact, if I had to choose between being a causality of some terrorist action or having my boring E-mail examined; I'd choose the later.) I imagine that many people reading this have much more clandestine activities who might best consider suspending these for awhile (or dealing with it). If they get arrested they should get a good lawyer and trust the system; (a sketchy proposition at best!) They probably would have a good case if their privacy were violated under the auspices of the Feds looking for terrorist anyway.
What will likely happen is that we will find someone to bomb the shit out of, as well as truncate our civil rights here at home. Neither will be very effective. The world community will remain involved until they begin to question our foreign policy, then will do whatever we want regardless of world opinion. (Might makes right.) Our war on terrorism will be about as effective as our war on drugs has been.
I agree. How can we as a people be so arrogant as to think that our major export, our stock in trade, militarism and war would not one day visit us at home? It surprising that it took this long!
It's really tragic and heartbreaking on a lot of levels.
Einstein stated that he hated "patriotism upon demand" because it promoted nationalism that in turn creates a 'them & us' mentality. But make no mistake they are us! They are just like us in that they believe that the ends justify the means; just as our government does. Y. Arafat once said that the difference between a soldier and a terrorist is that the solider can afford a plane for his bomb. The Terrorist has to carry his in. We may be smug in our self-righteous "wealth and power" that we pretend we somehow deserve (because we were born into it?) Don't kid yourself; we've been exploiting the peoples of the Middle East for a very long time. Read 'What Uncle Sam Doesn't Want You To Know' by Noam Chomsky. He is notorious for chronicling our interventions in the Middle East and in the third world. He shows how the "wealth and power" we enjoy is built on the backs of these people who for reasons unknown to us actually hate America. Go figure. Dag Hammarskjold believed that exploitation was violence. (He doubted that there could be a politic without violence). I agree, and we have been doing these people violence for a very long time. The kind of hate that it takes to fly a planeload of innocent people in to a crowded place to kill them and yourself doesn't spring up in a vacuum. They've been ruminating on this for a great long while. They are like us in just the same way the Shiite Christian praying for the death of O. Ben Laden is as deluded as the terrorist who thinks he's going to be a martyr. Y. Arafat once said that the difference between a soldier and a terrorist is that the solider can afford a plane for his bomb. The Terrorist has to carry his in.
I love my country, but I suffer under the notion that we should be responsible for the means by which we act as a nation. It's that whole troublesome Judeo-Christian ethic thing. I have no desire to see O. Bin Laden become a martyr at the expense of innocent Afghanistan nationals who are already suffering with a famine and cholera. The US has enough bad karma.
I was also stuck by the casual, low tech, openness of the crime. I had heard that one of the terrorists had his family living with him in Florida as he studied to become a pilot. He sent them back to the Middle East on August 30th and proceeded to put all of his personal belongs and furniture in the garbage. He knew he wouldn't need then any longer.
I was actually comforted by the fact that there were more people involved than initially suspected.
I may be wrong, but my take on this is that it was very low tech. They used box cutters and AOL! I think the problem isn't in finding encrypted messages these guys have left behind. They probably left plenty of the garden-variety. They committed suicide for god's sake, they've probably been operating in relative openness. I think that operate in the mundane, that's how they go so unnoticed. They've reportedly found some messages already on AOL and Earthlink. I doubt any will link them to O. Bin Laden because he probably had nothing to do with them personally, (other than creating the atmosphere they took their cues from and laud their accomplishment for other idiots to follow).