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Dear Paul: Eloquently said, but it saddens me that it needs
to be said. Aren't the pictures and videotape enough?
The only common  thread in our background is that we both
live in Connecticut. I am a Catholic middle-aged,
middle-class, anti-gun dove of a psychiatric nurse. George
W. was too conservative for me. Ralph Nadar was more to my
taste. But I see  no moral dilemma here. They came into my
country, my home, and brutally killed thousands of
civilians-men, women, and children. It breaks my heart
when I see the families of  the lost ones wandering from
place to place holding up pictures, in the hopes that
someone can identify one of the corpses. Because the
reality is that they will not even have the cold comfort of
a body to bury. Their loved ones have been blown to bits.
The terrorists, these creatures, for I cannot call them
men, have had a taste of blood. THEY WILL NOT STOP. It
would be immoral to allow them to continue.  Carole Hercun


--- Paul Lauer <[log in to unmask]> 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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