On Mon, 24 Nov 2003 16:00:39 -0600, Frank
wrote:

Tactics like...
- recognizing that the "war on terror" isn't a "war" we can ever win with
the military.

-- Which is why it's being fought with the whole govermental
apparatus, and not just the military, y'know.

- actually becoming neutral in the Israel/Palestine conflict.

-- I don't think we should ever become neutral in a conflict where one
side makes a point of attacking noncombatant children, and then hides
behind their own noncombatant children, and then claims that their
opponents are killing noncombatant children they happen to be hiding
behind.

- not accommodating the corrupt and brutal rulers in the provinces of
Afghanistan.

-- Good point. What other option is there? Bring in non-corrupt and
kind rulers to take the place of the ones we depose?

People the world over have had a rash reaction to us doing that in
Iraq.

- practicing abroad what we preach here at home about due process and free
speech.

-- Always a good idea, provided our enemies don't use our own sense of
justice against us.

- sometimes we will have to swallow something unpleasant even if we don't
"have to".

-- Y'mean, like the cold fact that 3000 innocent dead were snuffed in
the space of one sunny morning?

- making sure what we want for other countries is in their best interests
also and then using our considerable talents at PR to convice other
countries/peoples of that.

-- "Freedom" and "Democracy" is not in the best interest of every
human being? (A tad jingoistic, to be sure, unless it's the truth!)

- recognizing that there are times when we will not get our way.

-- We would be fools not to recognize that.

- recognizng that our moral values cannot be superceded by our business
interests, no matter how much the lobbyists pay the politcians.

Which set of morals, now that we're a tolerant multicultural
politically correct nation of relative morals?

- get real value for our foreign aid by insisting on measured results, not
just dollars spent.

Hear hear. That's a good point.

None of these tactics require the military.

Too right. Other necessary tactics in the war *do* require the
military, and you haven't listed them.

That's not to say that we don't
need them, but the current administration's inept handling of the whole
thing is mostly a lesson in what not to do.

One thing I think is true is that it's difficult to call a unique
situation ineptly handled, if something like it has never been
encountered before. We all differ on the details of how to take care
of the terrorists, and prevent another 9/11.

Most of all we Americans must reject ideas that these issues are black and
white. Not every Muslim is a terrorist and not every American is a pillar
of Democracy.

So spake George W. Bush, regarding Muslims, right after the attacks.
That not every American is a pillar of Democracy is nearly
self-evident, if one watches the Congress.

Rob

--
[You] don't make your kids P.C.-proof by keeping them
ignorant, you do it by helping them learn how to
educate themselves.

-- Orson Scott Card