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Re: [casi] Re: Urgent Request that you Prevent Rwanda Redux



Odd that you should write this today just as the reknowned  Daniel  Dennett,
professor of philosophy at Tufts University, has weighed in on this today in
an op-ed in the New York Times.

The Bright Stuff
http://tinyurl.com/gq0v


----- Original Message -----
From: <bob.steel1@juno.com>
To: <casi-discuss@lists.casi.org.uk>
Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2003 2:40 AM
Subject: [casi] Re: Urgent Request that you Prevent Rwanda Redux


>
> >will sit in his seat in the years to come.  'They' have >the money,
> 'They' have the power, "we" have neither in >sufficient quantity to be
> noticeable by "They."
>
> There is one thing I have noticed about the people involved in the peace
> and anti-Bush organizations: they are smarter than the average bear, and
> many have quite a list of academic credentials. In short, *we* (speaking
> generally, albeit not for myself), are a heck of lot smarter than "they"
> are. Yes, they are clever -- like con-men -- but very limited in
> creativity, broad understanding, or cognitive power.
>
> >will not turn over the keys to the city to those of us >which are no
> more than the "unwashed masses"
>
> Do not mistake healthy humility for underestimation of your real power.
> The people on this list, many professors and grad students in prestigious
> universities, and in other peace groups, are hardly unwashed masses. The
> "common people" are not likely to gain access to the keys -- but then,
> they would be far too busy watching the sitcoms on TV to even notice they
> had them.
>
> But this is the information age, dependent on technology and "knowledge
> workers". A solution may not be obvious, but is there not a way to
> outsmart them, despite their "cleverness" and cons? Shall the peacemakers
> be outdone by criminals and frauds?
>
> Think about it -- if YOU wanted to take over the world, would you have
> done things so badly? Already it is beginning to unravel. The lies and
> the bad planning are already coming home to roost. A great part of the
> problems facing imperialist neo-cons are the result of their own
> incompetence and lack of foresight. If YOU had been in charge of the
> invasion, would have tried to do it without a much larger number of
> troops? They were warned by expert generals, and yet Rumsfeld, in his
> arrogance, went ahead with his "lightning force", and failed to secure
> the country.
>
> Let's say that they planned to kill as many Iraqis as possible to
> depopulate the country (deliberate genocide is nothing new to
> imperialists). Why then did they not drop some bombs with a deadly plague
> and blame on Saddam? Either they weren't smart enough to think of it, or
> they weren't smart enough to see the consequences of attempting genocide
> by structural disintegration. Or did they not plan for killing off the
> people -- and in that case then why didn't think of making adequate
> plans? Whatever the case, the situation is going to hell, not just for
> the Iraqis, but for the US/UK as well. This whole affair has been riddled
> with blindness and stupidity -- this can't be what they *wanted* to
> happen.
>
> It's like the Bay of Pigs screw up, or Vietnam, or Somalia, or the other
> "operations" which those doing them though were so darned clever and were
> busted up. None of this seems to have been well thought through -- the
> type of operation one would expect from adolescents.
>
> The US has this huge expensive war and at the same cut taxes drastically.
> Did they not have the patience to follow the old rule of the role playing
> game raiders -- First plunder the village, THEN burn it? They thought
> they would get rich on Iraqi oil -- and never looked at the time factor
> of how long it would take to pump that much? They never considered the
> internet and it's effect on how it would help protesters get organized?
>
> And what about the forgeries? Were they so stupid to think they would not
> be noticed as bogus? Where did they come from? If they got them from
> someone else, why did they use them since they were so bad? If they had
> them produced, why were they so sloppy? Did they WANT to get caught with
> them and discredited? The whole thing stinks of gross stupidity and
> blindness through arrogance and underestimation of the opposition.
>
> Now the intelligence community is being blamed by the administration, in
> effect, by saying that they let it remain in the "bowels"  and didn't
> properly pass the info up (to the "Colon Powells"). Now Sen. Levin is
> calling it an "intelligence failure" -- I think because Levin is telling
> the CIA that they had better spill the beans and nail the administration
> or take the rap themselves. This was unanticipated? That the government
> professional would not jump ship if things went badly -- but neglected to
> see to the details so they would *all* have their rear ends covered?
>
> Heck -- the way thing have gone, if this was written up as a story by an
> average spy-novel author the thing wouldn't have even have gotten
> published. Maybe they can get away with sloppiness with the unwashed
> masses, but the *real* opposition are the brains of the world.
>
> It seem to me that Nixon was twice as smart as all of these clowns put
> together, but Nixon's insanity and stupidity brought him down. (Yeah,
> Fred -- just set the microphone to the tape system in the corner there
> --- Now, I want what's in that safe and I don't care how you get it..)
>
> These clowns are going to outdo a bunch of Cambridge scholars, and top
> intellectuals worldwide? Their money and current political power will win
> over cognitive power? *BUSH* and his throwback friends are going to
> outsmart us all? Not if we refuse to fall for their propaganda about
> being powerless and succumb to the fear-fog they propagate, and put all
> our brains in gear! C'mon Rog -- you're an anthropologist -- you can
> out-think Rumsfeld with your ears tied behind your back! :)
>
>
>
>
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