We shall remember them

[Bill Campbell]

On Sun, Oct 20, 2002 at 03:10:53PM -0500, Robert Black Eagle wrote:
>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>Hash: SHA1
>
>I am deeply sorry for the losses.  It should be a reminder to those of us who 
>have been keeping a watch on Indonesia that Christian fanatics and Moslem 
>fanatics have been killing one another (entire villages, sometimes) in an 
>attempt to impose their own agenda on the nation.

There are also people who are quite willing to exploit these fanatics for
their own ends.  F.A. Hayek discusses this in detail in his book ``The Road
to Serfdom'' in the chapter ``Why the Worst Get on Top''.  Demagogues
exploit the fears and prejudices of ignorant people for their own gain
whether it was Hitler's Brown Shirts, the KKK, or terrorizing senior
citizens saying their social security's going to be cut off.

This isn't to say that one should apologize for the terrorists, or leave
free people open to attack.  Certainly in the short term that's of
paramount importance.

In the long term one has to question who's profiting from this conflict?
It obviously isn't the average people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Saudi
Arabia, or the people on this list (unless perhaps we have some Central
Bankers or arms dealers on the list :-).  Why should we believe anything
we're told by government, the press, or TV news?

Bill
--
INTERNET:   bill at Celestial.COM  Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC
UUCP:               camco!bill  PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way
FAX:            (206) 232-9186  Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820; (206) 236-1676
URL: http://www.celestial.com/

``If you make yourselves sheep, the wolves will eat you'' -- Benjamin Franklin