Nick, your point list 1-6 is naieve and ideal.  Your solution however is
effective and brilliant.  The hope is of course for non-compliance.  This
allows a material and real measure of retailiation.  I would love to see
this implemented, and soon.

-----Original Message-----
From: pic microcontroller discussion list
[mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Nick Taylor
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 12:42 PM
To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: Tragedy


Mark Skeels wrote:
>
> I offer this for your consideration: hatred, at it's heart, is the same as
> murder, just not acted out. Therefore, what these terrorists did is just
the
> natural result of hatred.
>
> Now, how will you suggest that we should address the hatred, which is the
> actual root of the problem?

Excellent, but very difficult, question Mark.  Having been married to a
lady from Mexico for sixteen years, and having traveled widely in my
twenty years in the US military, I think that I have a semi informed feel
for the attitudes prevalent in "third world" countries ... so I'll give
a shot at an answer:
(1) All colonial powers (US, UK, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland) need
to publicly acknowledge and apologize for the way we've exploited so
many countries ... and promise to not continue.

(2) Stop setting up and supporting puppet governments in other countries
that will support our economic and/or political positions. Batista in
Cuba, Diem and others in Viet Nam, and the Shah in Iran quickly come to
mind ...We make them rich, arm them, and then use them to exploit their
countries.

(3) Stop using military or economic means to coerce other countries to
conform with our ideas of how they should handle their internal affairs.
Use our military strength only to defend our shores and our citizens.

(4) Stop electing our US government officials based on their fund raising
abilities and the image that they present on television.  Tony Blair
comes to mind as the type of leader that we could have if we had a
better method of selecting our leaders.

(5) Improve our educational system to that a much larger portion of
our citizens can understand our foreign and domestic policies so that
we can make informed decisions in how we vote.

(6) Break the habit of thinking that we must have somebody to hate.
In the 20th century we went from hating the Orientals to hating the
Soviet Union, and now it's a toss up whether we should hate China or
Islam.  We don't need to be on a wartime basis to maintain our
economy.

Now having said all that, the atrocity of September 11th must
have a response.  If I were president (not a chance, my dislike for
politics caused me to turn down a seat on our local board of
education a couple of months ago) I would do the following:
Demand that the leadership and direct supporters of this attack
be delivered to the US within five days.  Consequence for non-
delivery is that one major city (Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq,
Algeria, Iran, Libya offer a wide range of choices) will be
leveled with conventional weapons each five days (remember the
Arc Light missions in Viet Nam?).

  -Nick T.

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