Very well said, Paul. At last more logic appears.... that has been
exceedingly rare in the past few days.
                                 Don Adams

At 02:48 PM 9/15/01 -0400, you wrote:
>I thought I could avoid mixing into this one but between the opinions on the
>list and the opinions on the local talk shows...I live in CT. And get the New
>York Public Radio station... I find myself more and more amazed at not only
>the lack of understanding of the situation but of peoples' lack of
>understanding of each other. First, it would be helpful to know what
>background people bring to the debate. For my part, I am a secular Jew, with
>a natural bias toward Israel and a resultant antipathy toward terrorism.
>Antipathy is defined here not just as "I think it's horrible" but rather as
>"What to do to stop it." I am ex-military, retired after 30 years service
>both Active and Reserve as a Colonel 0-6 (full Colonel) and bring the bias
>which caused me to serve 30 years and results from that service. I am a type
>A personality with whatever bias that brings to the subject at hand. I don't
>hate Arabs; I don't hate Muslims. For that matter, I don't hate anybody
>unless they pose a danger to me and mine. Terrorists who kill people at
>random, fit this description.
>
>Ignoring for the moment pacifist or non-pacifist tendencies. Ignoring left or
>right wing politics. Ignoring racial and ethnic loves, hatreds or neutrality
>on the subject; there appears to me to be an aspect of common sense missing
>from the debate. If there is a mosquito swarm, you spray it lest it continues
>to bite at will. If you contract a disease and it is treatable, you treat it
>lest it get worse. If your brakes squeal, you do a minor repair rather than
>wait for the major to be needed. I suppose I could go on and on with a
>plethora of small examples of how rational people run their daily lives. If
>you take my point, you can easily see how the collective must also act for
>the common good regardless of the magnitude of the example.
>
>Going after terrorists is a not an exercise in racial or ethnic hatred. Nor
>is it an example of Man's (All of us) inhumanity to man (all the terrorists).
>It is exactly and explicitly a case of self and familial and friends' and
>lovers' and neighbors' and acquaintances' and (non-terrorist) preservation
>and preservation of a way and custom of life we would like to continue to
>maintain. Unless the terrorist threat is eradicated (like the mosquitos, the
>disease and the squealing brakes), it will grow and multiply until it finally
>intrudes directly into your and my personal relationships, if it hasn't
>already.
>
>Common sense says that no debate is necessary on the ethics, right or wrong
>of eliminating to whatever degree attainable, any threat to our (lots of
>inclusion in 'our') health, well being and way of life. It seems to me that
>to think otherwise is to harbor an ultimate death wish. I for one, do not
>think otherwise.
>
>So my opening thought that it would be good to know what bias (and baggage)
>people bring to the debate turns out to be spurious. Pacifist dove or
>warmongering Hawk, Liberal or Conservative, Muslim. Jew, Christian, or
>whatever denomination, the bottom line is preservation...which cannot be
>achieved if people of any stripe are allowed to blow us up with impunity. If
>we take no action they will take further action. They will poison water
>supplies, unleash radiation and fill the entire nation with terror. And then,
>having taken no action, we will bemoan our inaction and belatedly take
>whatever steps are available to the few of us still capable of taking them.
>
>So, Listfriends, it is not Retribution or Retaliation which is the name of
>the action. It is and should be done in the name of prevention and self
>preservation. And while new terrorists will in all likelihood follow the old,
>the type A in me says when that happens we'll get them too.
>
>Peace to all who deserve it and a pox on your terrorist head to those who
>don't.
>
>Paul H. Lauer
>
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