[quote]
Farewell happy fields,
Where joy forever dwells: hail, horrors!
A mind not to be chang'd by place or time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.
Here we may reign secure; and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, though in hell:
Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. John Milton. 1608-1674, Paradise Lost[/quote]
A truly Free Man knows no Master and Keeps no Slaves.
[quote]
Kissinger prophecizes:
My prognosis is this: the impending war in Iraq is the breaking point for the United States and the United Nations. The time line for conflict in Iraq will be as follows...
January 27th--UNMOVIC gives its report on weapons inspections. It states that there has been no conclusive proof of violations by the Iraqis and that they will need more time to verify compliance.[/quote]
This is not quite correct in a very important manner. The distinction is that they did find verifiable violations and suspect behavior, pay attention.
[quote]January 28th--President Bush's State of the Union address in which he points out that Resolution 1441 stated that Iraq must be proactive in dismantling its WMD programs. He will then state that Iraq is in material breach. At this point he may also offer "smoking gun" evidence to gain momentum within the international community.[/quote]
Give the Boy a Ceeegar! [!]
I congratulate you for presenting the party line. Succinct and substantially correct that is why I am talking to you.
Gotttaa .... love him
[QUOTE
January 28th-February 10th--Iraqi opposition in the North and/or West declares Independence.
[/quote]
Whoooops gross exaggeration there huh, guess you need to better analyze the threat you face.
[quote]
February 10th-February 25th--US forces are in place and US offensive begins. I'll predict February 22nd as the start of offensive operations. [/quote]
Here we are...
Get a grip...
It just isn't going according to plan. I suggest you rethink policy, strategy, and tactics..
[quote]
March 1st--Oil fields and Scud boxes have been secured. Baghdad (and possibly Tehkrit--Saddam's home town) will be the only areas of resistance left. [/quote]
I think I will go out on a limb and suggest that not only are your dates far fetched as premature, more importantly so is your policy.
[quote]
March 3rd-April 1st--Baghdad falls and order is restored. Nation-building commences.
The time line for Baghdad falling depends on the US decision as to whether it will resort to urban combat or whether it will cut all power to Baghdad and lay siege to the city. This is the one really difficult decision the US has to make. [/quote]
This isn't just unrealistic, it is a false promise made to commit the People to a course of action that will have profound and grave long term consequences of commitment not a damn urban renewal. Nation Building begins in the Hearts of those defining the Nation.
[quote]
Another unknown is whether the United States will push for a second Security Council resolution against Iraq. After the January 27th Inspections Report there is going to be pressure to allow the inspectors to have more time. The US is not going to allow this.
Instead the US will push for a resolution authorizing force. Opposition to authorization of force will come from Russia, China, France and Germany. A compromise will be reached in which the Security Council states that Iraq is in violation of Resolution 1441. However no authorization for the use of force will be given. This allows the UN to save face. [/quote]
While you had your position understood you failed to appreciate that the rest of the world would not follow in accord. In other words your plans are...
Nooott gonna happen,... jus not gonna happen...
and it didn't go the way you planned at all.
Do you even have a Plan B?
[quote]
Mr. Kissinger deflects::
I ask you again. Who is going to stop us?
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"War is never morally justifiable."--LL
I simply disagree.
[/quote]
Have you ever hunted? How about big game? Ever hunt without a gun?
If we were trapped in the jungle I would survive, would you?
Pygmies Hunters take down elephants and feed their tribes for weeks. They can do this with little more than a trick, a trap, and under the beast's own weight and inability to move too quick they find the soft underbelly of this great behemoth and sever its crucial blood vessels.
This is our enemy's strategy.
Knowledge really is dangerous and our enemy KNOWS US better than we know them.
Routinely I am forced to remind you that there is no moral justification for war, there is at best the expedient of defense for survival or the ethos of acquisition. I am an ethicist and I do not confuse these two. I would apply the surgeon's cold logic to cutting out the heart of an enemy that is resolute in plotting my destruction but I would not pretend that such wanton violence was "moral". It is at best, practical.
We don't simply disagree, you are either wrong or duplicitous, and attempting to manipulate the memetic character of common morality to your advantage and that would include the building of Empire.
[quote]
As far as your predictions of a civil war-- I think you are way off base. My calculations simply provide a different outlook. When this is all said and done I will say, "I told you so."
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No, I don't think Washington was a primitive and uneducated clout. I have great respect for Washington, but using his statements from 220 years ago are like using statements from FDR 220 years from now. It probably won't fly. Whether Washington would have understood the complexities of our world is idle speculation. [/quote]
I trust that the words of FDR I used above will be as valid in 220 years as the words of Cicero are today. Such are the power of ideas that transcend the age in which we live. Even as these words are valid more than two millenium after being spoken:
[quote]
" Silent enim leges inter arma." Laws are inoperative in war. M. T. Cicero, Pro Milone, IV, xi
[/quote]
If Augustus had instead made peace with Anthony and Cleopatra rather than ravaging the Middle East and the Republic with War we would all probably still be speaking Greek and Latin in the West.
Pax Romana brought five centuries of Peace, Prosperity, and Empire that lead directly into a Dark Age.
The greatest potential of the Dark Age we now face is not simple ignorance, poverty, oppression and suffering it is Armageddon and Oblivion. Your most apparent weakness of the study of history is very much your Achilles Heel.
[quote]
Kissinger goes on to add:
When I give you your moral justifications I am placating you.
Bob retorts:
I believe it is vital that the overwhelming number of the general public (at least in the United States) buys into this invasion at the front-end because of my experience during Nam.
[/quote]
And come back to remind US all on topic:
[quote]
The militarization of orbital and outer space will do more to set back the quest for extension of our civilization into the sky above than even today's loss.
This is not a "New Age of Conquest for Discovery" it is a shared "Age of Discovery Beyond Conquest".
It is time to recognize this ultimate frontier as belonging to us all in the tradition of a really free and fertile region open to us all. There is no actual security in the statistical promised that you let deceive you, the only security is ultimately in shared common cause.
Yes, militarism has been a force that has driven much of human progress throughout much of history but at what level of unnecessary and suspect loss?
What we need is a free and open frontier that holds promise to us all in common, not the high-ground battlements from which petty tyrants can threaten common citizens. There is no noble purpose in this plan, only false promise and a sleight of hand.
We don't need the protection that this technology offers even at its highest potential. It is not only a boondoggle, diversion, and distraction from the important investment that needs to be made. It will stand as a monumental barrier preventing most from gaining access and creating alternative options for the pursuit of exploration and development into this possible outlet for the growth of all humanity.
The ability to pioneer our solar system will not be enhanced by orbital forts, wing mounted ASAT's, and ground based beam weapons or launch vehicles used for destructive and useless intent. I do not buy either the argument, or the product. I will not willing contribute to this cost. Whine about taxation and realize that the war tax necessary to build this amounts to extortion for foul purpose a contribution to a crime.
[/quote]
You have not in fact addressed any of the claims I have made Mr. Kissinger. You have consistently sidestepped and avoided direct rebuttal and be advised that while I have taken great pains to specifically address the numerous arguments you have made with fact and alternatives that are logical and plausible you in turn have not done so in your turn.
You have instead squandered your opportunity to make counter argument to the issues as they in fact can be defined both historically and in the present tense. You favor repeating the party line, making veiled threats, and attempting to defame my character as unpatriotic or subversive, interested in the destruction of my precious land, people, and principles.
You do so at great peril for I am the greatest ally that you might ever make and offer true hope of Victory, which is not a claim you can really make.
So here I re-post my basic argument and ask you again how the claims of security are served?
How should the promotion of Deep Space Development go forward?
and
What rational response would you expect from our adversaries from the policies that you put forward?
Your proposals are a guarantee of a return to a monolithic economy based on the preservation of the Military Industrial Establishment for the exclusive purpose of keeping the Cold War Alive for Centuries as the practical methodology of global hegemony, the balance of US and the many THEM.
In agriculture such monolithic methods lead to the Potato Famine that almost destroyed the economy of the British Empire at a crucial time not just decimate its subject people in Ireland. In economics monolithic economies also so vulnerable and this is well known to the enemy but not our citizens.
[quote]
Dr. Strangelove chides me:
Now the reality. The United Nations was created by the United States. The United Nations is funded predominately by the United States. The UN headquarters is located in New York City. Let's be honest, the UN is the US's bitch. [/quote]
Is this how you refer to a love, your paramour, companion, and partnered competitor for power?
Yes it is true, it is an uneasy marriage between the US and the UN but while it is not a marriage made in heaven it is also not just a marriage made in hell.
It is a simple example of competing desires and divisions of power within the family of man, and ironically the competition for power and legitimacy between the patriarchy and the matriarchy. It will be here where the relationship of humans will be judged as anything more than just another relationship of exploitation.
It is within this New Age Institution where we as a species come to grasp reason.
Or fail...