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Dear Tony & List, Am not in my most constructive frame of mind, so pardon if I say very little in very many words. But your letter raises some important issues, which deserve attention (not just by me!). When in extreme circumstances, do we let all rules & principles go by the board, & - the devil may care - behave without behaviour? It may, as a newborn baby, be tempting to do so, it certainly has been tried, by many people, artists, criminals, football mobs, binge drinkers, some mentally ill people, police (esp. under despotic leadership), rebels, soldiers, those in situations of extreme unrest etc., have all discarded our, more or less, civilised boundaries. Would you have liked to stroll around the streets of Paris, on your own, during the fervour (even collective madness?) of the French Revolution? This isn't intended to criticise the social ideals of the French Revolution, I'm using it as an illustration & an example. Sooner or later, if one is, at all, capable of reasoning, comes the time of reckoning. When you are confronted with the results of the orgies, the mayhem. When it is time to pick up the pieces of one's actions. With honesty, cover-ups or denials will be of little use. Freud spoke of the id - the basic instincts, which we all have - & the superego - the controller. When the latter, so to speak, goes on holidays, all hell is let loose. Differing descriptions have been used for, basically, the same thing. - And, I think this is the point I have been leading up to, destruction of societal restraints, for whatever reasons, is extremely dangerous activity (not meaning rabid control-freakery!). To a grave extent, law & order, the frame-work & 'infra-structure' of Iraqi society, appears to have broken down. Water, electricity, plus all other basic needs & services must be dealt with (the New Zealand Quakers brought some sanity into the debate, recently). But the proccess of healing has to develop. That requires restoring trust. Elga, who, frequently, has made some very apt comments, says, that chaos & insecurity, in Baghdad, are only "half the story". If a human body is 50% burns-damaged, or 50% ulcerated or ....that is a state of extreme urgency. If a society is (providing that figure is correct) 50% in chaos, that is dangerous - might even lead to, virtually, 100%, for some considerable time. Any NGOs who ignore that - but I expect few would - do so at their peril. But to merely diagnose, to acknowledge that the situation exists, is not enough. Something must be done to cure the malaise. Many of us are, I think, in relative comfort. Many Iraqis are not. When I suggest the Iraqis need to assess moral probity, I didn't mean it as some kind of mind-game, to while away the time - the house - of Iraq - is burning! I, or others, may put it into, more or less, accurate, or erroneous, words. But sobriety, & reality, return, sooner or later. And, the longer the delay in repair-work, the higher the cost. Sorry, Tony, if I've gone off on a tangent & displayed my ability to waffle. But do you get my drift? Greetings, Bert. _________________________________________________________________ It's fast, it's easy and it's free. Get MSN Messenger today! http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk