And (3) We cannot use un-democratic systems, countries and persons to protect democracies ( like Bin Laden before in the comunist Afganistan ) ;(
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jack Park" <jackpark@thinkalong.com>
To: <unrev-II@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, October 01, 2001 4:01 PM
Subject: [unrev-II] Fwd: [issues] thoughts on the crisis...
>
> >From: Paul Werbos <pwerbos@nsf.gov>
> >
> >It seems that this crisis re Bin Laden is severe enough... that we really
> >can't just let go of it
> >right now. For myself, there seem to be two lessons: (1) we cannot withdraw
> >into our own independent
> >lives and activities.. in general.. so much as we might be inclined to; our
> >thoughts, however fallible, are an essential part
> >of the overall system; (2) yet we must expect to make mistakes... and
> >correct them.. which is part of the inevitable price of
> >trying to think about something so tricky as this present situation.
> >
> >And so... here are some thoughts which I do not endorse, but may be worth
> >thinking about....
> >
> >
> >FIrst, could it be that we have made a fundamental mistake here in
> >declaring war on terrorism just now?
> >Should we instead have declared war on drugs?
> >
> >People have made a lot of comments here that "systems thinking involves
> >real awareness of multiple points of view...
> >like shifting the actors and seeing what things would look like from
> >different vantage points."
> >
> >OK, when Al Capone claimed to represent a poor people's Catholic revolution
> >against "the real mafia -- the Rockefellers etc."...
> >the mafia tried hard to project that message for decades, because it is
> >convenient for them.
> >The message didn't get all that far in the US, because of the large
> >law-abiding Catholic population... which was able to outweigh the
> >large and significant but smaller population that did go along with
> >Capone's message. And now Osama Bin Laden has really convinced
> >most of the West that the base of his motives is a truly religious - if
> >fanatic and distorted and aberrated -- quest.
> >And even some Moslem leaders have argued, in effect, "He is well meaning
> >but slightly ignorant. He simply never understood
> >that part about jihads and the innocent." It would be as if a Catholic
> >priest said of Capone "He is truly Catholic and
> >part of our community... he just never heard about that obscure clause in
> >the footnotes about 'Thou shalt not kill.' "
> >
> >Likewise, all this hopeful discussion of Taliban giving up Bin Laden ...
> >may be an exercise in fuzzy fantasy.
> >
> >Let's try some different metaphors here... one crude, and one better.
> >
> >Would Taliban give up Bin Laden? Well, would Hitler give up Rommel? It's a
> >matter of understanding the
> >relationships... Rommel was not just a guest!
> >
> >A better analogy: there has been much debate about the US war on drugs in
> >Columbia and its neighbors.
> >Yet... it is interesting to ask... if this clumsy war on drugs had not been
> >so extreme... is it not possible that
> >Columbia (or neighbor...) today would be very similar to what Afghanistan is?
> >
> >Last night, the TV news stated (I assume correctly this time...) that the
> >Taliban zone of influence includes more
> >than half the production of raw heroin in the world. Taliban has made
> >noises about stopping it...about as honest
> >and sincere, I assume, as their noises about turning over Bin Laden and
> >being true Moslems and such.
> >In fact, it is their government's primary source of income... and the
> >original source from which their various
> >security operations flow.
> >
> >The Latin American drug cartels learned long ago the benefits of buying out
> >various "people's liberation" movements,
> >which have turned into nothing but shock troops for their operations. Many
> >of the fighters on the front lines still
> >believe what they started to believe... there is a big psychological and
> >practical barrier to admitting even to themselves the
> >horror of what they have become. But the midlde level people, who interface
> >between those troops and the people who
> >pay them and set priorities... know full well the whole picture... and know
> >how to manage a more conscious psychopathology.
> >
> >In a way... Taliban is a kind of experiment... what happens when one
> >DOESN'T do a full-fledged war on drugs.
> >
> >And then one might ask... if the US went into Columbia, why was this
> >Taliban drug cartel -- not a nation-state but an well-organized
> >drug cartel -- left alone for so long? What can we learn from all this?
> >
> >On the US side, there are undoubtedly many factors. For example, cocaine
> >has been a far worse threat to US society than heroin,
> >for the past decade or two. Heroin has been more of a problem for Europe
> >and Asia -- suggesting that perhaps Europe and Asia
> >should take care of that half of the world's hard drug problem.
> >Furthermore, the centers of heroin production have been more
> >in the zone where European and Asian powers have influence and capability
> >to act.
> >
> >There are tremendous difficulties in defining what is "terrorism," if one
> >insists on being infinitely broad about it.
> >Sometimes those who insist on being infinitely broad before acting end
> >being infinitely dead instead. Sometimes
> >it is important to proceed one step at a time, as the next small step
> >becomes clear. The word "heroin" is
> >a lot easier to define than the word "terrorism." And it is the greater
> >part of what really killed those people in
> >New York.
> >
> >Perhaps the greatest need at this time would be for the other members of
> >the UN Security Council to ask the US
> >to put its resources and energy behind a new internationalized version of
> >the war on drugs... slightly modifying and
> >extending what has been done to help nations in Latin America, and working
> >to do something similar in Afghanistan.
> >And a first stage might be a UN ultimatum for Afghanistan BOTH to turn over
> >bin Laden and his lieutenants, AND
> >to burn out the poppy fields themselves... or else be prepared for the
> >international community to do it themselves.
> >
> >---
> >
> >People on this list have at times proposed "bomb them with food." Normally,
> >this is not a sensible approach...
> >for a long-term approach to global problems... certainly the US is not
> >physically able to feed the entire world...
> >but certainly I hope the US military have studied carefully what might be
> >possible on these lines.
> >
> >Perhaps the ability to drop food, and burn out poppy fields, should be
> >getting the highest priorities right now,
> >in terms of large things that involve the military. (Not to downgrade the
> >important efforts to apprehend the
> >various criminals, and assist others.)
> >
> >As for timing... who knows? There are many, many pros and cons...
> >
> >Best of luck,
> >
> > Paul W.
> >
> >P.S. Speaking of the Capone analogy... some of my own staunch Catholic
> >ancestors proposed fighting
> >the Capone phenomenon by abolishing Prohibition... something which did
> >help, to a significant extent.
> >Many have argued that something like the British system of "registered
> >addicts" might also help.
> >I tend to agree that some form of that system could be a great help in the
> >global war on cocaine
> >and heroin. (Until Taliban and Bin Laden wnet so far... maybe I would have
> >said just cocaine for now...
> >one could start there...). But that is not an ALTERNATIVE to doing what
> >needs to be done in Afghanistan
> >here and now... and it may take some time to work out the details... and,
> >in all fairness, to overcome the political taboos
> >associated with the subject...
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0.0 : Mon Oct 01 2001 - 14:51:51 PDT