off topic but i have to say it.

[Brian L Massey]

On Fri, 15 Sep 2000 09:53:38 -0400 "Bruce" <nacelp at bright.net> writes:
> 
> If your dad or grand dad beleived that, you'd be speaking what?, 
> Japanese,
> or German.
<...>
> > In the long term, violence only begats more violence.
> > -Toby

I don't know if this is going to help much, but these kinds of
discussions are typical when major trauma happens. The higher the level
of trauma, the higher the disparity between people.

Do you notice the huge difference in people's reactions? Do you notice
the large difference in time different people take to even begin to
adjust to the trauma? Mix that in with varying levels of perceived future
threat, etc., and you get these very different responses. Personally, I
think it's a mistake to expect everyone to feel as most of us in the US
seem to; yes, it *is* an issue for the whole world, obviously, and of
course *has been* for a long time. But in an indefinable but palpable
sense, it is now *very personal* for most Americans. Don't expect others
to feel that way; look what it took to shake us into full consciousness
about the fundamental nature of this threat and evil. It took us what,
around 2-3+ years, to take Hitler seriously. The trouble with this kind
of kill-the-innocents guerilla stuff is it can nibble away at you for a
long time, before you realize, "hey, these guys really *do* intend to
kill us all if they can!". You tend to think of these wretches as "mental
cases", until they start going for the big weapons.

I'm personally disappointed in the current attempt to "rally the world"
to support/join us in this "war". I  realize the practical side is that
we can use all the infrastructure we can get our allies to help us with
(and we should do that), but you just can't expect the full *it's now
personal* feeling to have reached them. Many of the European nations will
be afraid of being "drawn into" what they now think of as "our fight".
What will happen over time is that they (like we eventually saw in WW2)
will come to see as Americans suddenly have, that there isn't any way of
sitting on the sidelines in this. Does anyone doubt for even a
femtosecond that if these wretches had germs or nukes, they would use
them? Just around the corner, guys. Our enemy had some time ago declared
'jihad' (I will forever translate that into 'unholy war') on modern
civilization. And we just woke up to the fact in a real personal way.
Eventually they will too.

Meanwhile, it's time for Americans who care about our families and our
way of life, to get busy. Sorry for those currently squeemish, but yes,
*war* is the correct word.

Brian
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