As I spend way too much of my time reading the posts on the list (and
occasionally LBO), I am compelled to comment.
The majority of the comments are what I expected. Utter moral confusion.
Futile attempts to fit the events into your preexisting world views. As
Marxists or Marxist influenced, you divide the world into classes and then
analyze events through that prism. The events of Tuesday cannot be viewed
through a class prism. You must step back and understand the more
generalized implications.
Conflict can exist, but there are lines. For instance, Americans understand
the Beirut bombing in 1983, or the Cole bombing, and even embassy bombings.
It seems strange to say, but those were within the lines, because they were
military targets outside of the United States -- in other words, they were
symbols of American imperialism and unwanted involvement in foreign affairs.
Fair game, in some strange way.
On Tuesday, the terrorists made no demands. They gave no warning. They
simply destroyed and committed suicide in doing so. This means that they
cannot be deterred. And not only they cannot be deterred, but they
recognize no lines. Therefore, as soon as they can obtain biological or
nuclear weapons, they will use them. They will attempt to kill millions of
people.
In responding, it is not an issue of deterrence. This very small percentage
of the billions on earth cannot be deterred from destroying life for the
remainder. It is not a matter of vengeance. Anger does not express my
emotion. The issue is that there are people who we now know will use
biological and nuclear weapons to kill millions of people. The United
States, and every other country, now must do everything possible to
eliminate every capacity of these people to access biological and nuclear
weapons. I stress everything. This means toppling governments that support
these people. This means destroying their training camps. This means
killing these people before they act. And this must go on for years. The
best imagery is that we are gardeners who will have to pull weeds as they
appear before they destroy the garden. We are literally beyond all lines.
Perhaps our efforts will be futile. In our technologically interdependent
and fragile society, it only takes one person out of billions to destroy
what the others have created. But we must try.
And I stress we. The Left faces a dilemma. The Left worldview, which
attempts to fit everything into an economic class issue, simply cannot
process what we are facing. When you act and speak as if mere economic
equality is evil, you run out of words when you see what evil really looks
like. Therefore, you have to decide -- whose side are you on? There is no
middle ground. We can argue about political, economic and social issues,
but only after we agree that there must be an agreeable platform for us to
discuss these issues. Those who are my enemy are attacking the underlying
platform that both you and I depend upon. If you do not agree, you are my
enemy.
I have always wondered what it truly must have felt like for a Roman in the
5th Century to see Rome ransacked for the first time in over 700 years. Or
what it must have felt like to live during WWI, when 100 years of
generalized European peace and prosperity came to a horrific end. Unless we
act with complete success in the coming years, I think we may soon find out.
David Shemano
