[Rhodes22-list] Replies to Bob Skinner and John Lock

[Robert Skinner]

Tootle wrote:
> ...
> Bob said, “I'd say that any nation who actively advocates the obliteration
> of another nation or supports another with that goal (including our own) has
> no business with nukes.  Further, any nation that has a territorial boundary
> issue with another (including our own) and refuses to submit the issue to
> international arbitration is on the ragged edge of outlawry.”  I cannot
> believe you wrote that.  You sound like me.  Commodore Spitzer will have
> your head.  Another war monger.

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Tootle, let us not confuse surgery with "Ye Haaaa!  
Let's have a little war to help out our buddies!"

You will note (if you do such things) that I prefaced 
my remarks with a disclaimer; I compared Bush to 
a blind pig finding an acorn.

I think that his decisions (as presented to the public)
indicate that he is entirely capable of playing with 
hand grenades in a closet.  If he is playing with a full
deck, he is hiding it well -- a dangerous game.

As to my feelings about war: I am a Marine.  I firmly
believe in greeting everyone as a friend while knowing
how I will kill him or her - if he or she turns hostile.
But I only have to do that if personal relations fail 
miserably and lives are at stake.

9/11 was a hostile act, not to be regarded as explainable
by anyone in any positive terms.  Bin Laden and his supporters
or apologists are IMHO either candidates for assassination,
isolation, or excision.

As to Israel's actions -- as far as I am concerned, they 
are fighting for their existence, damn good warriors,
entirely justified in retaliating for aggression against
them, and in point of fact, doing a lot of the world's 
dirty fork for the rest of us.

And, as a warrior myself, I regard war as the absolutely
last resort of a nation with a failed diplomatic capability.  
This nation is so powerful that our going to war for any
reason is an indictment of our administration, a shameful 
exhibition of administerial and diplomatic incompetence.

On the other hand, assassination is a merciful alternative
to war -- minimal collateral damage to infrastructure and
civilians.

God help us all,
/Robert Skinner