Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id DAA18733 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 17 Apr 2002 03:37:43 +0100 X-Originating-IP: [137.110.248.206] From: "Grant Callaghan" <grantc4@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: RE: Bush's War on Terrorism Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 19:31:38 -0700 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <LAW2-F54cCwJFuh0AKC00000483@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 17 Apr 2002 02:31:39.0181 (UTC) FILETIME=[00B6D5D0:01C1E5B8] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>
>Hi Grant
>
> > Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2002 17:29:53 -0700
> > From: "Grant Callaghan" <grantc4@hotmail.com>
> > Subject: RE: Bush's War on Terrorism, Asian Viewpoint
> >
> >>>
> >>> Is it a case of they must be seen to be doing something or do the
> >> American
> >>> (and UK for that matter) authorities really believe they are
> >>> fighting a war?
> >>>
> >>> Regards
> >>>
> >>> Steve
> >>>
> > I think they believe whatever they say not long after they say it. What
>we
> > have in the White House now is a bunch of cold war warriors trying to
>relive
> > the days when we "defeated the evil empire" by standing around and
>watching
> > as it collapsed from within through mismanagement.
> >
> > Now they are engaged in a battle for they know not what and are calling
>it a
> > war because they think that will rally the nation around them while they
>try
> > and figure out what to do. One faction seems to want to take over the
> > policing of the whole world and run it in our image and another wants to
> > take the commanding heights of commerce and let the market (which we
>happen
> > to be in nominal control of at this moment in time) sort out the
> > relationships between countries. Neither faction seems to be paying
>much
> > attention to what is happening to the world as we play our global games
>in
> > the meantime.
> >
> > It may actually turn into a war if they're not careful but it will be
> > nothing like we've ever seen before: jet planes against camel jockeys
> > charging across the desert waving kalashnikovs and crying "Allah Akbar."
> > The muslims have no industry, no armies to speak of, and they are trying
>to
> > destroy what science they once had in the name of some new kind of
> > creationism. It won't be a war as much as it will be a high-tech
>slaughter
> > of innocents who think they can stop the world and get off so they can
>step
> > back into a past that never existed.
> >
> > Anyway, that's the way things look to me at the moment but who knows
>what's
> > just around the corner waiting for us?
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Grant.
>
>I agree up to a point. You are forgetting something that in the UK at least
>is still aware. For some Muslims there are no Earthly borders. How many
>Muslims live in the west? How many will side with the Arabs? Push comes to
>shove where is America or the UK going to get its oil if they go for broke
>and blow the wells? Might be lots of dead martyrs, but how many dead
>westerners when the system shuts down. Ballistic missile shield wouldn't
>have stopped 9/11, what makes you think that high tech will provide a
>solution?
>
>Or do you think they will opt for the biblical option of sowing the fields
>with salt?
>
>Regards
>
>Steve
>
High tech will provide the same kind of solution in the rest of the muslim
countries it provided in Afghanistan and Iraq. Sadam blew the oil wells in
Kuwait and they were back up and running in less than a year. That's just a
blip in the world timeline. If the Arabs refuse to sell us oil, the west
will just march in and take over the oil wells on some pretext or other. If
there's all-out war, we'll just drive them back away from the oil and dare
them to do anything about it. Meanwhile, the Russians and South and Central
Americans will continue to supply the West with oil while we convert to
hydrogen fule cells.
A war with the West is not a war the muslims can win. Strapping bombs to
their backs and marching on the West will only cause a relatively small
amount of damage in the long run. 9/11 took us by surprise. That won't
happen again. And what's happening in Israel will keep us wary until it
stops. In reality, the Arabs and other muslim nations have nothing to fight
with. In his taped interview this week, bin Laden gave all the credit for
9/11 to God. That's the sum total of their war effort. They depend on God
to come and save them, even as they commit mass suicide. They are neither
rational nor effective. All they can do is raise hell for a while. That
doesn't win wars.
Unless they can convert us all to Islam, I don't see the muslims having a
chance of taking over the world. They can't even organize their own
countries into places worth living in. Show me a muslim country that's not
at war with itself. A country where the people are happy with the way
they're being governed. A muslim country where the people are not dreaming
about killing each other or someone else. I don't know of one. Do you?
Cheers,
Grant
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