From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Sat Sep 15 2001 - 10:40:13 MDT
On Thursday, September 13, 2001 8:51 AM Mike Lorrey mlorrey@datamann.com
wrote:
>> US policy not only creates enimies, it funds them via the War on
>> Drugs. The trade in illegal drugs is a major source of funds for
>> the Taliban, Bin Laden, and other rogue states and criminal
>> organizations around the world. See for example
>> http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,201444-412,00.shtml or
>> seach for combinations of drugs/heroin/burma/bin laden/taliban/north
>> korea.
>>
>>> The Swedes and the Swiss seem to have a very low incident of terrorism
for
>>> that very reason. Note all the First World nations that do have high
rates:
>>> the US, Britain, France, and Italy. Don't you see the connection?
>>
>> You forgot Spain and Israel, high rates both. I see the connection,
>> except for France and Italy, which I didn't realize had high rates
>> of terrorism.
>
> Yet Switzerland, as a major banking center of the world, is at least as
> responsible for the types of 'repression' that these third world
> a##holes yap about, but you don't see anything going on there, do you?
It's a bit different, don't you think? First, having troops in an area or
government aid is different than having some sort of financial connection.
Second, the people who usually worry about big banks and the like are First
Worlders. (Third Worlders weren't rioting in Seattle and Genoa.) Third,
most financial transactions that Swiss banks are involved in are individual
or corporate -- not public sector. Most of that, too, takes place in the
First World -- not the Third World. But even beyond that, what little does
take place in the Third World is usually private anyway. Helping to fund
some business or other is not the same as having troops on your soil or as
supporting an oppressive government.
> The countries that are targeted for terrorism are those who have been
> most active in combatting it and spreading ideas of liberty, freedom,
> and individual rights, which are anathema to the sort of control freaks
> with anti-liberty mindsets.
Not exactly so. The US government plays both sides of the fence here
anyhow, but often it has been on the side not of spreading freedom and
individual rights, but of supporting some idea of stability, playing world
social engineer, or just playing to internal politics in Washington. This
explains, e.g., support of the Shah of Iran (which arguably made Iranian
society ripe for revolution instead of ripe for freedom), Qaddafy in Libya
(who became an enemy of America in the 1980s), Marcos in the Phillipines
(who was no friend of freedom and individual rights), Turkey (which has been
busy for over a decade now butchering its Kurd minority), Guetamala
(supporting the death squads there), Osama bin Laden (in the 1980s when he
was our friend because he was the Soviet's enemy) and so on.
This is not to say there haven't been exceptions to this pattern of
supporting terror, but the pattern is very clear.
I fear is that most people in the world who face American backed oppression
will go on to hate America completely -- not separating the good things
about our society (the connected elements of freedom, individualism, reason,
dynamism) from the bad (a big bloated welfare-warfare state) -- and some
will do their best to attack it or support attackers of it. It's kind of
like the British Empire. Britain probably was one of the least oppressive
big military empires, but what little oppression it did make people in its
colonies think capitalism and free trade were part and parcel with
imperialism.
> Anyone who thinks the Taliban are to be considered agents of freedom are
> seriously deranged.
Does anyone here think they are? Has anyone made that claim? However, the
US governement helped to put the Taleban in power by its policies in
Afghanistan during the 1980s. Now, we are reaping what Carter, Reagan, and
Bush sowed. Unfortunately, their blunders are not visited on them, but on
innocents such as those in the WTC and Pentagon and on board those jet
liners used as missles.
Later!
Daniel Ust
Read "Knowledge is Power" at:
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/IP1_Know.html
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