From: Mike Linksvayer (ml@gondwanaland.com)
Date: Sat Sep 15 2001 - 22:36:07 MDT
On Fri, Sep 14, 2001 at 08:38:36PM -0700, Technotranscendence wrote:
> From: Greg Johnson gregoryrjohnson@mindspring.com
> To: objectivism@wetheliving.com
> Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 2:31 PM
> Subject: OWL: Never Again
>
> Jason Walker is mistaken. I do not think that the United States should give
> one inch to terrorism WHEN OUR INTERESTS AND PRINCIPLES ARE AT STAKE. But
> America has no interest in being allied with Israel. Nor do we have a
> significant commonality of values. Israel is more like the hated Muslim
> countries than like the United States. Morally speaking, the Jews in Israel
> are no better than their neighbors. Do the Arabs torture and assassinate
> their enemies? So do the Israelis. Are the Arab states run by terrorists and
> mass murderers? So is Israel. (Shamir was a terrorist,
> Begin a terrorist, Barak a trained assassin, and Sharon is a butcher.) Do
> Arab states sponsor terrorism? So does Israel. Are Arab countries
> anti-capitalist? So is Israel. Are Arabs tribal and collectivist? So are
> Jews. Do Muslim states base their laws on revealed religion? Some of them
> do. But so does Israel. Do most Jews and Arabs actively take part in these
> policies? No. Do most of them give their tacit consent? Absolutely.
The US sponsors terrorism, is partially anti-capitalist, etc. I
guess the US is more like Israel and the Muslim countries than ...
what? They're all the same! That's silly. I condemn the US
government every chance I get, but it's clear that it's much, much,
much better than the average terran government, and the government
of Israel is at least much better than average.
> "So we tell the Americans as people, and we tell the mothers of soldiers and
> American mothers in general that if they value their lives and the lives of
> their children, to find a nationalistic government that will look after
> their interests and not the interests of the Jews.
Israel is not the only US interest in the region, and isn't what
got us into hot water with Bin Laden. Try containing the USSR and
maintaining access to Persian Gulf oil.
I think Greg Johnson's arguments are asinine and sound rather
bigoted, though we may agree on the best course of action: stop
meddling.
-- Mike Linksvayer http://gondwanaland.com/ml/
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