Real World Event Discussions

Stupid hippies.

POSTED BY: citizen
UPDATED: Sunday, August 13, 2006 19:47
VIEWED: 3120
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Wednesday, August 2, 2006 5:38 PM

Quote:

by Ken Burnside:
I am firmly of the opinion that we will want and need every willing back, every strong hand in friendship, every erg and dyne of support we can get.

This is not a conflict that calls for a measured, careful response.

This is a conflict that calls for an overwhelming, careful response, and an continued commitment.

The enemy has billed this as a war of cultural annihilation. Either they remove us, or we will remove them.

They have defined the goals of the conflict. The enemy is just as vulnerable to these objectives as we are. More so, in fact. The enemy builds his force on ignorance, on the Big Lie.

The enemy's greatest fear is that the prosperity of the West will seduce the generation after this one. That the memories of old blood feuds will fade when presented with McDonald's and computers and cheap cell phones. Every call they make to recruit is against the decadence of the West destroying their way of life.

After we punish the enemy with bombs, with bullets, we must salt the soil that the twisted tree of intolerance and fanaticism takes root in. We must change the hearts and minds of the young.

We salt them with small computers. With internet access. With a telephone in every village. With juvenile novels and encyclopedias translated into Arabic. With teachers who speak their language, and who teach them to use these tools to answer questions for themselves. Yes, some of those teachers will be killed. They are soldiers in this war as much as anyone who takes on a beret or a gun, and we can make martyrs of them for the world.

No tyrant can long survive with an informed and educated populace.

The organizations they declaim as the mouthpieces of the US shall be USED as the mouthpieces of the west. We tell their children that there is a life beyond substistence farming and blood feuds. We tell their wives and daughters that there is a life where they are valued as individuals and people in their own right, not as chattel.

We give them the tools of bilateral communication, rather than unilateral indoctrination. We give them the internet. We declare a great work, of making sure that every corner of this globe has access to fast internet access. Not just the US. Not just Europe. The world.

They will see pornography sites. They will also see sites discussing engineering, and simple improvements to agriculture. The curiousity of children will be piqued, and their questions answered. With each question asked, and each answer given, we slowly wean them away from the culture of intolerance.

They'll be able to ask questions without censure or censoring, and get answers they might not otherwise have.

I would sooner carpet bomb with game boys and Pokemon, and an Arabic translation of Monopoly, than FAEs and nuclear explosives. The adults are beyond our reach. The young MUST be reached so that 20 years from now, the thought of piloting a captured airliner into an office building full if innocent bystanders meets with universal horror.

I fear, in the haste for vengeance, that the nature of this conflict will be forgotten. Make no bones about it -- this is a culture war. It can only end with a declaration on the order of Cartago Delendo Est.

We cannot win this war with bombs or bullets, although we can accelerate its prosecution by those means. We can only win this war through a generational conflict; we must win the war in the hearts and minds of the children growing up in the Middle East now.

Winning that longer war will be costlier and less immediately gratifying than cluster bombs and Fuel Air Explosives, and "killing the bastards and everyone that helped them."

It can, however, be a profitable war.

If you are an author, or someone who creates media, contact your publisher about translating your works into Arabic. Someone in the DoD is in charge of outbound propaganda; we should find who that person is, and give them the munitions to win this war.

Bin-Ladin has declared this a culture war.

Let's show him what a culture war TRULY looks like.

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Wednesday, August 2, 2006 6:11 PM

I have no response to this one way or the other...but was more appalled by the author's poor Latin quotation.
The phrase is "Carthago delenda est" - Cato's closing remarks in all of his Senate speeches which eventually led to the Third Punic Wars. Every first year Latin student memorizes this phrase.



Jayne and I hate improper use of language...

"Have you ever been with a Warrior Woman?"

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Wednesday, August 2, 2006 6:14 PM

Cartago Delenda Est = Carthage must be destroyed?

Delenda is spelt wrong (Delendo) but the phrase seems more or less correct.



More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

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Wednesday, August 2, 2006 6:19 PM

I might have an opinion one way or t'other if I could just figure out what the hell the author was talking about.

Maybe I need to take some drugs.



one of the Forsaken TM

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Wednesday, August 2, 2006 6:23 PM

9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, al-Qaeda.

Start winning hearts and minds instead of scattering said body parts across the pavement.



More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

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Wednesday, August 2, 2006 6:43 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by citizen:
Quote:

by Ken Burnside:
Winning that longer war will be costlier and less immediately gratifying than cluster bombs and Fuel Air Explosives, and "killing the bastards and everyone that helped them."

Bin-Ladin has declared this a culture war.

Let's show him what a culture war TRULY looks like. Let's send in Shakespeare. And Heinlein. And Harlequin Romances, Pokemon and The Simpsons.



I believe he's saying that if we are to win the war in the Middle East, we would be better served offering the young adults of the Middle East "Western" pop culture and changing the basic infrastructure from within rather than physically killing everyone. Make them want to join us rather than forcing them.

Citizen: as for the Latin, I can admit when I'm wrong. The phrase IS: "Carthago delenda est" and I (mistakenly) believed that without the H in Carthago he is referring to a totally different word. I thought the author was remembering the phrase phonetically ( pronounced Cartago ). However, it is acceptable to write Carthage as "Cartago."

Mea Culpa.

"Have you ever been with a Warrior Woman?"

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Wednesday, August 2, 2006 6:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by citizen:
Fg Hippy]



yeah, well i may be a stupid, tree hugging hippy.... but at least i know better than to start wars i can't win.....




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Wednesday, August 2, 2006 6:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dayve:
yeah, well i may be a stupid, tree hugging hippy.... but at least i know better than to start wars i can't win.....

I was making fun, prempting the responce of Hero, AURaptor...



More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

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Wednesday, August 2, 2006 6:56 PM

Citizen... i was right there with you... just tossin in 2 centavos...

I am continually amazed at the generations who fail to learn from the mistakes of the past..... i suppose it's true that the human condition can only rectify itself by complete and utter annihilation.....

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Wednesday, August 2, 2006 6:59 PM

Count me among the "hippies."

Now where are Hero and AURaptor? I'm always looking for like-minded folk.

... but you put 'em together, you got a firefly. Thing'll run forever, they got a mechanic even half-awake.

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