Re: I keep having flashbacks to Catch-22

Post #9,679 by dmarker2 9/19/01 3:06:03 AM Reply	Re: I keep having flashbacks to Catch-22 You guys are being awarded this medal for maintaining the highest accuracy in mainatining your bombing patterns (the crew were actually bombing the ocean to avoid having to go near the enemy). Hmmmm - For an attack on Afghanistan to have any meaning it must be a purposeful strike against terrorist training camps & as with cuban missile crisis, the govt needs to satisfy the world & esp Islamic world, that the targets were real & perfectly legitimate. In order to do that without triggering a wider anti US Jihad, the US must let some of these countries know in advance (and therefore Bin Laden & his minions indirectly). So then the attack can be undertaken with the hope of not killing poor decrepid miserable Afghanis who were either too poor, disabled or just unable, to evacuate away from any areas near Afghan military locations that might get attacked as a result of Taliban trying to strike back at US attackers. There is that question of 'If Afghans try to stop ane attack in any way (not sure how they could), does US military strike back & widen the original attack ?'. Well my plan is this. Attempt to strike a deal with the Taliban that allows US to attack some probable terorist bases that are empty. The US can transmit lots of pictures of missiles striking their targets in these camps & thus satisfy those people who desperately need to see a gulf war rerun. The Taliban can claim they supported the US in attempting to rid Afghanistan of terrorists. US can reward them with some recognition & by not sending any more Christain evangelists disguised as aid workers. The Taliban can 'expell' Bin Laden to another country, say Sudan or Ethopia or Somalia. This country can then repeat the whole cycle. While all that is going on, The US can then quietly go about assasinating terrorists identified by their new updated, highly funded, intelligence services. Does this all seem bizzare ?, yes probably does, I think it is as a result of absorbing too much of what was in Catch-22. Cheers Doug Marker
Post #9,680 by Andrew Grygus 9/19/01 3:42:54 AM Reply	Yes, the absurdity is total . . . . "The US can then quietly go about assasinating terrorists identified by their new updated, highly funded, intelligence services". At exactly what funding level would our intelligence services start to work? Is there that much money? [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]
Post #9,682 by Ashton 9/19/01 5:16:26 AM 9/19/01 6:12:36 AM Reply	Can't buy retroactive time with even $USD That ~5 year lead time, that is. (Maybe about the time the sleepers began to arrive in US for this job? - some think.) Announcements from Mein Kampff II, wherein bin-L announced his plans, later made near-future predictions (which somehow presaged an actual Event - each time) umm several times, and in quite clear wording - These were insufficiently impressive to the tough minded pragmatic spooks: those 'guardians against waste' of taxpayers money, for frivolous pursuits of guys with funny robes. Best (and lots less messy) to use nice techno- surveillance - just like that remote for the Tee Vee. Save those messy personnel and unsavory sources. (you blew That one, Bill C. et al) Contrasting a similar puzzle, though scientifically a vastly complex problem: Enigma, the German adaptation of a Swiss? enciphering device for commerce, in late '30s. A couple of Poles found a rather silly flaw: 1:1 mapping of keyboard to master rotor (Brit sleuths never thought to look - they wouldn't do something that simple!) then Alan Turing, etc. I suppose that, had modern-day priorities operated then, and Enigma not been broken - Rommel would have won in N. Africa, the U-boats would have sunk all the Atlantic shipping: we'd be counting ein, zwei, drei.. non? Are we getting dumber or just more bizness-like - or is that the same? Bitch bitch bitch.. 20/20 is so.. illuminating, no? A. Of course, any idiot knows where the [link\|http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2001/07/23/tomo/index.html\|real priorities lie...] Edited by Missing User 70 Sept. 19, 2001, 06:12:36 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #9,714 by tablizer 9/19/01 2:25:04 PM Reply	If Bin was smart..... Your Mein Kampff reference gave me an idea. If I was Bin and truly believed in that (stupid) cause, then what he should do is surrendur to the US under the condition that he can write a book in jail to explain his ideas. It would likely be a best seller now that Bin is the most focused-on person in the world. He's bigger than OJ, especially world-wide. That may sway opinion more than bombs and gas. ________________ oop.ismad.com
Post #9,724 by Ashton 9/19/01 3:57:02 PM Reply	Y'know..? That sounds so dumb - it just might be brilliant! - except once ever seen as a ploy? Cancelled out. Only works once. Yes, he's articulate, and many of his charges have basis in some facts of the US hegemony / lone 'super' status and, our actual national attitude about power and about $$. And even about our triviality, given our social habits.. But this is not about 'reasoning'. Given even a brilliantly written indictment of 'our' very many failures, our actions from ignorance of the inevitable consequences (supporting anti-democratic tyrants "in the name of democracy", trying to get everybody to stop drugs locally via Fascist methods - because our national appetite is insatiable!) etc. In an honest debate (his book vs 'our' book): We were utterly indispensable in the defeat of Nazism (as were the British indispensable in breaking Enigma - a main reason we all won a couple years early). The Marshall plan illustrates America at its finest - a complete reversal of the massive vengeance after WW-I. Etc. No other entity comes even close - we rebuilt Europe! after their cowardly appeasements almost gave Hitler his lebensraum. So in the age of the net, and given bin-L's articulate presentation of the POV of the relatively powerless world he represents - IMhO you can't do Mein Kampff twice; you can't create Jews as scapegoats and Straw ones at that - twice. You can talk about the vicious dividing up of the whole world's wealth, of course - but then you would indict Most nations! Not merely in US - is the local wealth concentrated in the few (or a handful - try Saudi Arabia, one of 'his boys'). He'd lose that propaganda war - if there were such a thing left as 'honest debate'. (Still.. power corrupts and, we are approaching Absolute.) My 3 zlotys. A.
Post #9,681 by Ashton 9/19/01 4:02:41 AM Reply	We don't have Heller, but we have Tom Tomorrow.. Today [link\|http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2001/09/17/tomo/index.html\|You don't need a Weatherman to tell..]

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