It’s the Culture, Stupid!

Billy Beck’s post about the true justification for Iraq gets it just right. It made me recall what I posted to several forums on the morning of September 11, 2001 in response to the immediate and prevalent drivel about “bringing those responsible to justice.” And so I’ll play it once again, below: > Please help our Leaders find the ones responsible for this attack. Of course, this is not the time for heated debate, but it may be time to rethink the standard doctrine for dealing with terrorism–a doctrine that has focused upon primarily prosecuting individuals for crimes involving several hundred deaths at most. As we see today, there is no more way to defend against massive, coordinated terrorism than there is the impact of a nuclear bomb. The nuclear doctrine that has proven to work thus far is mutually assured destruction (MAD). That is, the guarantee that costs equal to or greater than those imposed upon us will be imposed upon the aggressors in terms of property and civilian casualties. Recall the sort of religious-like fervor that permeated the Japanese mind during WWII and what it eventually took to break that spirit and establish a secular, democratic government. Make…