Subject: Re: HAB: obiter dictum
Date: Wed, 06 Mar 2002 05:51:35
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<P>"...Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld appeared to prepare the public for <BR>possibly large numbers of casualties among non-combatants, specifically the <BR>families of Qaeda or Taliban fighters who are with them. <BR>He said the civilians were there "of their own free will, knowing who they're with <BR>and who they're supporting and who they're encouraging and who they're assisting." <BR> <BR>bob.<BR> <BR>This is exactly the argument of Al Qaeda for (their justification) for killing<BR>non combatant Americans. Plus they have additional excuse of compulsion,<BR>since they are technologically so inferior to America they can have no<BR>other choice but to attack on its soft belly (so to say). My point is if<BR>Rumsfield's line of argumentation is correct then why not Al Qaeda's as <BR>Well? [this all presuming that there is such an entity as Al Qaeda, which <BR>I doubt very much. It seems to me like Orient of Edwerd Said. Any way].</P>
<P>America can reduce civilian casualties, she has all means, and technological<BR>capabilities to do so. Then why it does not do so? The simple answer is<BR>that it will increase number of its own casualties making impossible to<BR>sustain the ongoing crusade in the long term. America is fighting a mercenary war <BR>in Afghanistan, buying soldiers from different warlords, and<BR>hence minimising the risk of its own casualties. Can America continue to do<BR>so successfully? I doubt it very much. No civilisation can defend itself with the <BR>help of mercenaries for an extended period of time and it is already becoming clear <BR>as every keen observer of the current situation would know.<BR> <BR>This proves my point that current debacle is political and should be treated<BR>as such. To moralise it is very dangerous and would not benefit us in understanding<BR>the situation. Of course bourgeoisie has always try to veil its<BR>real ferocious use of power and politics under the garbage of its morality but the <BR>reality is political and not moral in the sense that the capitalist morality can not <BR>be overthrown without overthrowing capitalist power regime.<BR> <BR>The political question is that there are people who are angry at American policies in <BR>the Middle East particularly the presence of its troop and struggling against it. They <BR>are demanding American expulsion from the peninsula. They are struggling for it. This is <BR>a political question. Of course America does not want to go out. It has political <BR>interests to stay there. Fair enough. But others have their interests too and they <BR>are struggling to pursue those interests. So this is a struggle, real struggle, <BR>a political struggle. There is no morality involved in it. The success of struggle <BR>would be determined by the levels of sacrifices at the end, not through any moralisation. <BR>America wants to stay, it can, it should, but it would have to pay price. <BR>There are people who want to contest the hegemony of America. They can and<BR>they should, but they would have to pay price too. Struggle would be decided by<BR>the question of who can pay the price for how long?<BR>BEST REGARDS<BR>ALI </P>
<P> <BR>The bourgeoisie (was) perfectly well aware that a new constitution or legislature <BR>will not suffice to assure its hegemony; it relise(d) that it has to invent a new <BR>technology ensuring the effects of the power of the whole social body down to its<BR>smallest particles. And it was by such means that the bourgeoisie not only made a <BR>revolution but succeeded in establishing a social hegemony which it has never<BR>relinquished. This is why . . . inventions (like panopticon) were so important, and<BR>why no doubt Bentham is one of the most exemplary inventors of technologies of power.<BR>Foucault The Eye of Power in Power Knowledge p. 156.</P></DIV></div><br clear=all><hr>Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: <a href='http://g.msn.com/1HM105301/13'>Click Here</a><br></html>
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