From: Arlo J. Bensinger (ajb102@psu.edu)
Date: Thu Jan 27 2005 - 22:02:53 GMT
Wim, Platt...
Platt wrote:
> The same way I distinguish between the Nazi panzers invading the
> Netherlands to create the Third Reich and Allied troops invading the
> Netherlands to liberate them.
I don't recall the Dutch waging a war against the American troops? I don't think
your analogy of America liberating the Netherlands and what is happening in
Iraq is a good one. A better comparison would be to the US backed incursions in
Chile (although certainly not as large scale).
Wim wrote:
> > Can you explain your implicit claim that terrorist
> > behaviour (by definition: ruling/attaining ends by creating fear) is
> > configured by DNA?
I agree with you, Wim. This is not a "social-biological" war as Platt would like
to believe. Besides making the assumption that everyone fighting "against the
US" is "fighting for the ability to live under a 'might makes right' anarchaic
system", it can't explain why the great majority of Iraqis are either openly
hostile to US presence, or are quietly not supporting it. In the election,
notice how no candidate is running on an openly pro-American platform. To
suggest that the entire population of Iraq desire to be "willing victims of
tyranny" or prefer "street justice" to any social pattern, is silly
condescesion.
I am sure, as Platt suggests, there are some Iraqis fighting for "might makes
right", but it does not explain the scale of the resistence. A better
explanation would be, as you've suggested Wim, a clash of static social
patterns, a resistance to hegemony.
Consider this. Pretend for one moment that a dictator gains control of America
(or the Netherlands). China decides it has the moral obligation to overthrow
said dictator and restore democracy. Now, consider your response as suddenly
Chinese bombers are dropping napalm on your streets, you watch as your friends
and daughters and sons are melted by the fire bombs. The houses on your street
are demolished, your friends are shot because, you know, all Americans look
alike to the Chinese. They can't tell who the "bad guys" are. So they shoot to
kill. You are arrested by the Chinese army and held prisoner. Because you are
"American", you are asssumed to be the enemy, you are held without
representation and denied decent accomodations. You are made to lay on big
pyramids with other naked American men because the Chinese know Americans are
homophobic, and can break our resistence this way. Let's assume that somehow
they let you go, you return to your bombed out town, house in rubble, no
running water, no electricity, armed Chinese patrols monitor the streets so you
can't really walk around without getting shot at or killed. All your art
museums that you visited were destroyed by bombing attacks, as the chinese army
was guarding oil platforms and factories. Now, how "pro-chinese" would you be?
And if you resisted the ongoing chinese occupation, would you be fighting for
"biological reasons"?
The point is that this is not a simple matter of "biological-social" tension. To
believe so, as Platt does, is to simplify in order to justify.
> The trouble your country is currently having with your Muslim population
> would seem to question your assertion about the Dutch social system being
> more "sophisticated."
Without knowing the details of the Dutch "problem" with Muslims (or if there is
one, as Platt suggests), inter-cultural and assimilation difficulties are not
the exception, they are the rule. Look at the problems we (the US) are having
with our latino and black populations, just to mention the two predominent
minority groups. If degree or lack of severity of problems are the measure of
"sophistication", I would wonder how one can claim "we" (the US) are "more
sophisticated".
Arlo
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