From: Wim Nusselder (wim.nusselder@antenna.nl)
Date: Thu Mar 06 2003 - 22:19:00 GMT
Dear Platt,
You quoted 18 Feb 2003 11:54:13 -0500:
"In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born, across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free!
While God is marching on."
I have no quarrel with 'dying to make men free' but with 'killing to make
men free'; not with removing Saddam Hussein from power, but with a specific
way of doing so. The way you favor may chain the world for decades to come
to American jackboots.
I don't have a clear alternative except a suggestion to develop it from the
legacy of M.K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Non-violent direct action is
also a way to make men free that entails the risk to die. It took Gandhi a
lifetime to develop a way to free India from British rule.
If America hadn't invested so heavily in military superiority, it could have
developed the legacy of King for export purposes instead of weapons. While
allegedly exporting weapons to help people to free themselves or defend
their legitimate interests, American weapons are all too often used to chain
people and to defend oppressive regimes. While allegedly wanting
superpower-status to spread democracy and freedom, American foreign policy
is quite unashamedly sold internally as promotion of self-interest. The
means King and Gandhi developed have no such dual purposes.
There is enough time, I think, to take the sharp edge off American
war-efforts. Saddam Hussein is no more of a threat to American interests or
to world-peace than quite a few other dictators. If America would take the
initiative for open decision-making of 'the international community' about
who should be removed from power, by what means and where to start, the
outcome may still be war (after some postponing), but at least America
could not be said any more to be only after its own interests. Also the idea
of a global society with a police-force to subdue lower quality social
patterns of value (in your words: biology) would get some reality. And ...
there would be a chance that other ways than war would be found or that
greater consistency in words and actions of 'the international community'
would convince those dictators to mend their manners.
With friendly greetings,
Wim
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