>there is a distinction to be made between moral intervention through
>engaging in dialogue, and the use of force or coercion to impose a
>solution.
>The USA has to do the former.

This isn't directed at you, Mike...something you wrote stirred me...)


Unfortunately, the US doesn't care about the women in Afghanistan.  If we
had, then we would be aggressively involved in human rights campaigns.  The
US cares about imperial control in the Middle East--access to control OIL
and ability to shape GEOGRAPHY.  In order to end the struggles that
colonialism creates for the more restrained ease of the functioning of a
global Empire, the US needs to get control of OIL.  Means of production is
still important even if exchange is being factored out of the equation.

Americans do care about the treatment of people everywhere.  I'm positive
about this.  But most allow the gov't to speak for us all.  Some ridiculous
and grotesque misunderstanding of social contract theory, something kids are
taught in social studies classes.  I mean do we actually still cling to the
idea that the US is a democracy?  Where was the power of the people *in
action* when we were decreed the US president by the Supreme Court--folks
appointed by past presidents...hate to break it to you, but that process is
anti-democratic *by definition*.

Now is not the time to speak of intervention in Afghanistan alongside talk
of the Taliban's treatment of women.  It's damn patronizing.  But this is a
patriarchal use of gender politics and is to be expected.  Feminism is good
spin as long as it profits the patriarchy.  To borrow a term from Bell
Hooks, that's how white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy works.

The US doesn't want to protect Afghani women anyway.  We support the
stereotyping of arab as vermin.  And I don't know why we have to refer to it
as a support of Zionism at all (which in turn oppresses jews through
negative stereoptyping as zealots)--the view is really quite Christian.  And
that's the hierarchy:  Jews under Christians.  Israeal, the state, is a
Christian invention.  That's why the US insists upon "supporting" Israeal.
Their are no "homelands" in global culture.

In effort to become an Empire, to make concerns of imperialism obsolete, the
US has to assume a role of dominance in the effort to push globalization.
And global culture has no place for arabs, jews or christians, too.  The
global culture is a boundary/border-less civilization.  "Free" trade and
"Free" markets are controlled by a free-roving global economy independent of
specific ideologies...where is the labor cheapest? where is the means of
production easily attained?...capitalism is the state now, not some elected
official who has the ability to make moral decisions...faith and values are
purely leisure time stuff nowadays.

That we can actually consider the attack on the US as irrational,
psychopathic, or otherwise deranged (even though it took years to plan and
was almost perfectly carried out) is proof that western society is
attempting to silence any outside influences once and for all.  Free speech
is not free but invested in through western banks...if you don't invest in
the state (capitalist global economy, not the US particularly), then you
don't get to say anything.  Bush has no say in any of this...Cheney
understands this...he can without emotion justify military action...He
understands how the mechanism works...If you fuck with it, then depression
is immanent.  His silent demeanor is an example for all of us about how we
should behave...calmly, rationally, submissively to the will of the economy.

The idea that advancing the goal of a global military will have any success
in silencing terrorist action is quite incoherent.  The empowered military
requires the response of the terrorist in order to justify the means to
exist at all.  All out war is not in the plan.  We invest in terrorism and
actively train terrorists.  That's why the US military *wants* to attack.
It has to in order to exist any longer.  The US has designed many countries
through the training of insurgents...we profit not only from new allies, but
from fallout with them as well.  We can protect and attack...this dual
characteristic of the nature of the US makes it appear godlike in its
abilties to act almost purely on whim.  It gives the appearance of supreme
power...the power of Empire...But this characteristic is an illusion...it
really is not so...

Bush says to prepare for a long and drawn out effort...he says, be
prepared...I hope you realize this means giving the military and
intelligence groups as much time as needed to embed their wills into the
reshaping of the geography of the middle east and then at home...not only
has Afghanistan and Pakistan been spoken of, but Libya, Syria, Iran and
Iraq...

Notice how Reagan-era cold warriors are back on the news...if you don't
support the resolve of the US military response ability as an American, then
you are a troglodyte marxist...(see earlier post)...I can hear the old
phrases of pinko commie so and so being brought out...

I would urge each of us to consider the possibility that the US will attempt
to capitalize on the recent tragedy in order to gain control of the
distribution of crude oil throughout the world.  Something it has been
working on for decades.  The US will use Nato to require the participation
of the West *as a whole*.  Who can resist?

We have starved Cuba and are starving Iraq...we will continue to throw
embargos down as bargaining chips...but now we will use "intelligence" to
wrestle authority to Washington.  This gesture is insisted upon through
threat of retaliation.  Another wonderful democratic virtue...It makes me
sick to think that the wealth my country enjoys is invested in threats of
violent action and harvested through military action.  This is how the rich
stay in power...people of lower incomes are required to offer merely emotive
responses while those with real wealth go into the global market and invest
in our collective future...

Missile Defense is a trifle now...the economy doesn't need that fantasy of
safety any longer...through missle defense's obsolescence, after the
unforseen and unpreventable attack on the US, it now has the resolve
(through paranoia) to enter any country (borders aren't real any longer
anyway) at will and seek stability through force because it can claim the
need to stabilize the global economy since the US holds such a large
percentage of stock in it.


but there is hope...don't like military action, walk off your job...If you
want to see who actually controls the economy, we could all walk off our
jobs in solidarity for ONE day...Nothing could rectify the effect such an
act would have on the global economy...of course, solidarity among citizens
*as individuals* (it used to be referred to as Liberty) has become viewed as
a myth.  Liberty has given way to specific freedoms which are valued on the
market.  We don't want war, though, we don't show up to work.  It would
work.  But people think they need war...it's pitiful really...how helpless
folks have been taught to be...

I think of how reagan fired all of the air traffic controllers and how  the
workers just let it happen...if their were true unity, everyone would have
gone home...but we like to rally behind our leaders...it's too bad they are
at their most charismatic when they are attacking others.

Back to the point of moral responsibilities and intervention: Why do we ask
about "intervention"?  Why do we rely on our government to intervene for us,
when we on a daily basis question its dedication to our individual resolve?
If we are a democracy, then why do we let the government function upon its
own will?  If we are powerful and Right, then why the need for military
force?

I have been asking a lot of questions for many years, but after tuesday,
they now appear more relevant.

not "why did so many people have to die?" but
"why do we have to rely upon death in order to act at all?"



The US better not invest in terrorist behavior any longer.  Now the attacks
will happen here.  Quite frankly, that scares the shit out of me.  But what
has really affected my well-being is that unforgettable knowledge that my
country thrives on such horrifying and inhuman behavior...We tease it from
the world for our profit, now even when it comes back to haunt us.


gary norris

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp