What is it good for? (It's good for business.)

[cyrano]

My guests left last night. I am very thankful to them, because they gave me something to focus on aside from watching the news of the past few days. I have friends who I may have alienated due to comments I made in an attempt to let them hear what I heard them saying. I trust I will be forgiven in time.
Things appear to be progressing better than I'd hoped. People are directing their fervor toward reconstruction, and many people are tempering their 'We Must Act Now' demands with 'But Nothing Rash'.
Very few unprovoked attacks on people with the wrong color skin are going on.
Donations of time, money and blood are overwhelming the relief organisations.
We appear to be gathering clues as to who is responsible, and hopefully this time we won't bomb an embassy or a pharmaceutical factory.
My main disappointment so far has been Jerry Falwell and his crony Pat Robertson, who have declared that pagans, liberals and gays are responsible for the terrorist attacks because they have made G*d mad at America.
Of course, this means that God is less mad at whoever orchestrated these attacks.
It also means that, if Osama bin Laden is behind them, that G*d has finally given up on the Christians and thrown in with Allah and Islaam.
Things will suck (rumor has just come through that the Taliban is gearing up for holy war) but people seem, more or less, to be behaving as if they have half a brain. Knock wood.
Let's see if the US fights this evil terrorism by causing terror. Let's hope they don't.

Comments

a new era

[miss-friday.livejournal.com]

You are right in some ways. A lot of what has happened in the last four days has been incredible. Seeing what I considered Monday to be a divided and bitter citizenry come together for the good of our nation is truly amazing. In the end, we are all just Americans.

When I heard about the column written by Mr. Falwell and Mr. Robertson last night, I laughed. Their message is so pathetic and stupid that that was the only fitting reaction. (The use of "Mister" is appropriate, for they, in all their lunacy, are Americans too.)

But, if our goal is victory in war, as the leadership has been saying, then force will be necessary. I know you don't believe in that sort of thing, and I won't change your mind (only you can do that), but our past, non- or psedu-military responses to other recent acts of terrorism have led to this. It's only my opinion, which you also can't change (only I can).

So, if you agree to disagree, you can't alienate me. Meanwhile, don't burn down you kitchen in pursuit of the perfect teryaki chicken. That would be bad. ;-)

Re: a new era

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't mistake me. I'm fully in favour of retaliation. As opposed to Operation Desert MaxiShield, this would be a venture I support. However, it is much more difficult to wage a conventional war against a social group, like Al Quida or the Fraternal Brotherhood of Moose, than it is to wage war against a nation, like Israel or Afghanistan.
Unless the Taliban gives us an excuse to remove them from power and install the rebel forces, it will be a delicate job to go and get 'the bad guys' without turning to the politics of terror that we are trying to say are wrong.
And even if the Taliban /does/ give us a concrete target, this is not any indication that we can actually disable or destroy the organisation responsible for the attacks.
When I go to weed the garden, it involves very careful removal of the plants I don't want in there--plants which sometimes have extensive root systems, pokey bits, and other survival techniques. It means I spend a lot of time on my knees slowly and methodically working. I can't just take a flamethrower into the backyard and let loose, saying afterward 'Some of those other plants were bad too'.

Re: a new era

[miss-friday.livejournal.com]

No one said it would be easy. For if it were easy, it would have probably already been done. If I were in the leadership, I would be on the phone with Israel, England, Ireland, and Spain (all countries with recent experience in fighting and defending against terrorism) in order to find out what works and what doesn't. We don't have any experience in this sort of thing, but we could certainly benefit from theirs.