Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 18:41:33 +0200 (CEST) From: Birgit Bock <birgit.bock-AT-student.uni-tuebingen.de> Subject: my 2 cents "There is no such thing as a winnable war It's a lie we won't believe anymore" Sting from "Dream of the blue turtles" I like many in the last few days have been talking about the events and implications of WTC bombings on sept 11. For me I think that this act our bringing our world to the brink of catastrophe. If this is the beginning of an age, in which the everyday practices of our consumption and our generally oppressive and wasteful western life-styles are no longer secure, it is not so much that we are under attack in some Pearl Harbor like invasion. It is rather the crystallization that change. . CHANGE is making her demands. Our society is being shaken at its fabric., by two until now repressed Realities, the first being that in the modern age there is no such thing as a winnable war. Even after WWII the common adage " another victory like that and we are done for" was so true even before the outset of the full atomic age. No matter now much our government and military leaders who have us believe the notion of "no modern war is winnable" holds its sway over the center of all our military planning. Until now our governments achieved some semblance of security for its citizens under by working under the insane paradox that which proclaim that "the more we stockpile weapons the more deterrence create four our enemies, in short peace is best achieved by build more weapons of mass destruction. " This period has lasted until now, but is being radically altered by the inevitable historical pull toward proliferation. Despite the effort on the part of our government and its allies to not allow weapons of mass destruction to get into the wrong hands, we still are unable to curb envititble of proliferation which confronts us. Our government will not and is not able to defend us by using violence against its enemies, and this is not so much out of Wish on the lovers of peace but a ever-present reality limiting the rationality and effectiveness of war. As it becomes easier for individuals and groups who have been repressed and exploited by out "new world order" to obtain weapons of mass destruction we will confront a conflagration in violence. America's last two wars against Iraq and Yugoslavia were total successful from out standpoint almost loss of no American combatants (out side of the various poisonings our own soldiers suffered). But, I imagine that these latest attacks on the WTC are connected to our on going war with Iraq. Even if we as the worlds most powerful superpower experience "direct military victory" by punishing entire populations we are still short of any real victory so long as only a few determined suicidal terrorists decide to plan and wait, plan and wait over years waiting to exploit our some weakness in our security. Even if he tighten our security and prevent 95 % of all terrorist from getting through our net and just five succeed and one of those five has an effective weapon of mass destruction we are all doomed. The cost of one more event like to 9-11 is just too high, we citizens of western government have so much to loose, while the individuals of war torn regions have already lost so much that they are willing to sacrafice themselves. The excess on violence on the world stage is going to force us to confront our entire logic of defense, punishment, and victory. The violence which has served to legitimatize the modern state is overflowing and will be soon bring about its own downfall. I see the long term effects of the WTC bombing as being something which will force andividual to suicidal acts of mass destruction. Until now our "peace" or our conforming social order has been secured by the threat of total annihilation or any nation or group of nations which would attempt to destroy us. This peace has come an end leaving only one alternative a new "peace" which might be something that M Gandhi envisioned, as a force which convinces us of its rightness oddly enough not out of threat of retaliation and punishment but instead from a common and shared understanding of what is right and what makes sense. Jeremiah
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