Tuesday, June 22, 2010

I suppose there's a 'logic' to it

If you call "abject fear of the Other" logic.

So the SCOTUS has ruled that peacemaking efforts aid and abet terrorism.  This isn't hyperbole.

The US Supreme Court on Monday upheld the constitutionality of a federal law that makes it illegal to teach members of a foreign terrorist group how to use peaceful means to pursue political goals. Source
So that's how we're gong to win the war on (Some) Terror: make it so we have no choice but to be war like, and keep the cycle going.

So.  What to do?  Imagine the spectacle of peace group members languishing in jail.  Can you see former President Carter writing letters from a jail thanks to the "Patriot" Act?  He pays the fine and gets out and does it again?  Or does he get a pardon?  Can he get one in advance?

Or we could, you know, just Nancy up and behave like grown ups.  We could try mediation.

It's worked before, in Ireland and South Africa.  South Africa doesn't have oil, but it does have gold.  I don't know what Ireland has, except proximity to England, a minor global power.

It's a basic tenet of terrorism and anti-terrorism - if someone has nothing left to lose, they are capable of abhorrent acts.  If we make sure they have nothing left to lose, we're inviting blowback.

This is not "blame America first". This is logic.  This is rational self-interest.  This is looking at what is and not what I want to see.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Joe, I am dissapoint

Yeah, it's a sour meme, but I'm in a sour mood.  Biden kicked off our country's support of Israel's killing of people in the middle of the night, and is resisting calls for an independent investigation.

Israel didn't have to sneak up in the middle of the night.  It could have acted in its own waters, in daylight, and simply turned them away.

Instead they attacked in international waters, in the dead of night, and started killing people "armed" with pepper spray.

It will be interesting if more boats start coming.  What will Israel do?  Keep killing?  Will we keep supporting it? How many people will have to die before there will be peace with justice?