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While I do not consider myself a Libertarian, I find this piece reasonable.
President Bush has declared combatting terrorism as a struggle between
good and evil. It is important that the world's most powerful nation does
not fall into the trap of turning the emotion of tragedy into a stuggle
between evil and evil. The only effective fight against terrorism
is to instill in those driven to it a sense that more civil option are
open for redressing their desparate grievances, that power has its limits
in the context of justice and fairness. No system can protect itself
from acts that defies the rule of the system. For terrorism to be
rejected universally, the global system has to be more just, the concept
of freedom has to include freedom from want and oppression, the concept
of minority rights has to be respected by the powerful and socio-political
desparation must be recognized as pathological to desparate acts.
The insanity of the economics of war is that the expenditure of war
can easily be directed to prevent war itself. It is much more
productive to throw money at your enemies than to drop bombs on them.
Henry C.K. Liu
Bruce Carman wrote:
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/browne2.html
When Will We Learn?
By Harry Browne
9-12-1
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The terrorist attacks against America comprise a horrible
tragedy. But they shouldn't be a surprise.
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It is well known that in war, the first casualty is truth
-- that during any war truth is forsaken for propaganda. But sanity was
a prior casualty: it was the loss of sanity that led to war in the first
place.
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Our foreign policy has been insane for decades. It was only
a matter of time until Americans would have to suffer personally for it.
It is a terrible tragedy of life that the innocent so often have to suffer
for the sins of the guilty.
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When we will learn that we can't allow our politicians to
bully the world without someone bullying back eventually?
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President Bush has authorized continued bombing of innocent
people in Iraq. President Clinton bombed innocent people in the Sudan,
Afghanistan, Iraq, and Serbia. President Bush Senior invaded Iraq and Panama.
President Reagan bombed innocent people in Libya and invaded Grenada. And
on and on it goes.
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Did we think the people who lost their families and friends
and property in all that destruction would love America for what happened?
When will we learn that violence always begets violence?
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Teaching Lessons
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Supposedly, Reagan bombed Libya to teach Muammar al-Qaddafi
a lesson about terrorism. But shortly thereafter a TWA plane was destroyed
over Scotland, and our government is convinced it was Libyans who did it.
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When will we learn that "teaching someone a lesson" never
teaches anything but resentment -- that it only inspires the recipient
to greater acts of defiance.
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How many times on Tuesday did we hear someone describe the
terrorist attacks as "cowardly acts"? But as misguided and despicable as
they were, they were anything but cowardly. The people who committed them
knowingly gave their lives for whatever stupid beliefs they held.
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But what about the American Presidents who order bombings
of innocent people -- while the Presidents remain completely insulated
from any danger? What would you call their acts?
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When will we learn that forsaking truth and reason in the
heat of battle almost always assures that we will lose the battle?
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Losing our Last Freedoms
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And now, as sure as night follows day, we will be told we
must give up more of our freedoms to avenge what never should have happened
in the first place.
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When will we learn that it makes no sense to give up our
freedoms in the name of freedom?
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What to Do
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What should be done?
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First of all, stop the hysteria. Stand back and ask how this
could have happened. Ask how a prosperous country isolated by two oceans
could have so embroiled itself in other people's business that someone
would want to do us harm. Even sitting in the middle of Europe, Switzerland
isn't beset by terrorist attacks, because the Swiss mind their own business.
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Second, resolve that we won't let our leaders use this occasion
to commit their own terrorist acts upon more innocent people, foreign and
domestic, that will inspire more terrorist attacks in the future.
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Third, find a way, with enforceable constitutional limits,
to prevent our leaders from ever again provoking this kind of anger against
America.
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Patriotism?
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There are those who will say this article is unpatriotic
and un-American - that this is not a time to question our country or our
leaders.
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When will we learn that without freedom and sanity, there
is no reason to be patriotic? ___
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Harry Browne was the 2000 Libertarian presidential candidate.
You can read more of his articles at http://www.HarryBrowne.org, and his
books are available at http://www.HBBooks.com.
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