On Dec 10, 2004, at 4:39 AM, JDG wrote:
At 09:35 AM 12/9/2004 -0800 Dave Land wrote:
(Did I just hear right? We put in charge of the agency charged
with
defending the US against terrorism, a man who was a lackey for the
only country and regime that ever succeeded in perpetrating a
major
terror attack upon our soil?
Funny, I thought that regime was Taliban-occupied Afghanistan....
I believe David is referring to the fact that Osama Bin Laden
and virtually every one of the 9/11 crew were Saudis.
I kind of gathered that too... but that isn't what Dr. Brin said, now
is
it? He said that Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ordered and executed
9/11.
He said that the Kingdom perpetrated it, which is not so different
from
your wording. I'd probably word it in a way that makes it clearer that
the perpetrators were /from/ Saudi Arabia, but in an extra-national
terrorist organization operating out of Afghanistan.
Unless, of course, I was grinding an axe.
Like the one you are grinding against me?
I find it absolutely unbelievable that you can't see that there is a
huge
difference in culpability between "the Government of Saudi Arabia" and
"people of Saudi Arabia".
I also find it extremely difficult to believe that you don't understand
that Dr. Brin very intentionally used the first formulation rather
than the
second formulation, basically because that is precisely the charge he
wanted to level against the government of Saudi Arabia.
Well, you /assume/ that I don't understand what Dr. Brin was doing, but
I regret to inform you (honestly -- I am tired of fighting with you and
would much prefer a different mode of engagement) that the axe-grinder I
had in mind *was* Dr. Brin. You seem to be so ready to read an attack on
yourself that you didn't even notice that we were agreeing.
Would you please read what I actually said? I won't repeat words that
are less than six inches above this text, but in effect, if I were
editing Dr. Brin, I would have recommended that he word it differently,
and in a way that agrees with you.
So let's bury the hatchet. Or axe, if you prefer :-). Although you and I
have tussled lately, I would prefer that we grapple with ideas, rather
than finding niggling details of wording to argue about.
Anyway, like you, I am able to separate the Saudi government from its
people in my mind. I would be willing to guess that many of the Saudi
people would like someone to do just that -- to separate their
government from them. I found Amnesty International's briefing on Saudi
Arabia (http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/saudi/briefing/1.html) quite
informative along these lines.
Blessings, my brother,
Dave
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