IP: 2 questioning Prof. Sir Michael Howard [said I do all sides]

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: "John Fulton" <jfulton () westcapital com>
> To: <farber () cis upenn edu>
> Subject: RE: Prof. Sir Michael Howard
> Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 10:24:06 -0500
>
>
> An illuminating quote from this article:
>
> ...Sir Michael said the administration had made a "terrible and
> irreversible" mistake in calling its anti-terrorism campaign a war. It had
> granted al-Qaida a status it did not deserve and created overwhelming public
> demand for military action...
>
> Well, I guess it wasn't Sir Michael's country that was brutally attacked by
> al-Qaida, was it?  Yeah, and maybe the battle of Britain was just those Nazi
> crazies, and not really Germany attacking England.  The "overwhelming public
> demand for military action" was a direct result of an unprovoked attack on
> unsuspecting civilians on American soil.  And, there will be more attacks to
> follow.  This is a war and we didn't start it.  Sir Michael, like so many
> out-of-touch intellectuals, needs a clue.

From: "Hiawatha Bray" <watha () monitortan com>
To: <farber () cis upenn edu>
Subject: RE: The full Howard Speech
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 11:30:42 -0500
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Michael Howard's speech is a pleasure to read, especially in light of the
fact that his advice will, I hope, be ignored.
"Whatever its military justification, the bombing of Afghanistan, with the
inevitable 'collateral damage' it causes, will gradually whittle away the
immense moral ascendancy that we enjoyed as a result of the bombing of the
World Trade Center."
I don't want moral ascendancy. I want victory over the people who just
murdered 5,000 Americans. Find them. Kill them. If they become martyrs,
that's fine with me. I don't care if a billion Muslims put pictures of
Osama over their beds at night, as long as they stay in their beds. If they
come and mess with my country, then find them and kill them.
This nonsense about "creating a martyr" only worries those who hope to make
the problem go away overnight. We've learned, as a result of this atrocity,
that there are already millions of Muslims in the world who hate the West on
general principles. We'll have to deal with them for decades to come.
That'll be true whether Osama lives or dies. So let's get the process off
to a rollicking start by killing his sorry ass and everybody else we can
find who works with him. There'll be plenty more work needed beyond
that--police and intelligence work, mostly, to slap down any Osama wannabes
left behind. But we'd have to do that in any case, whether we go to war or
not.
Going to war against this mass-murdering maniac is exactly the right thing
to do. And much as I hate to say it, all the death and destruction we're
raining down on Afghanistan will send exactly the message that needs
conveying. You hate America? Fine. We don't even care. But keep your
hatred to yourself. Don't bring it over here unless you want your
neighborhood turned into a parking lot. That's the message now being
delivered in Afghanistan. I strongly suspect the same telegram will soon be
delivered in Baghdad. Makes sense to me.
Hiawatha Bray


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