My Thinking

Synergic scientist Arthur Noll shares his unique perspective with us with thoughts on war and defense.

"Osama Bin Laden has been in the news a lot recently.  Whether he is in back of the recent attack or not, it seems worthwhile to note some of the things he has said in the past.  He considers all Americans targets for death.  His hatred started during the Gulf War, the result of all the destruction visited on the Iraqi people.  The culture of the west and it’s relentless advance on the rest of the world, is also repugnant to him and many other Muslims.

"It does seem a bit unfair to be considered a target, if one was like me, strongly opposed to the Gulf War, and is not in favor of the western culture that is dependent on oil.  There are those here who agree with me that the culture has lost needed restraint about catering to human instincts, fulfilling wants, not needs.  A war for oil made no sense at the time for me.  Better to have spent the resources on weaning away from it, bowing to the inevitable end of the stuff.  Instead, we made bitter enemies and have come no nearer to losing our addiction.  Unfair or not, we are in the situation and must deal with it.  Probably the Osama Bin Ladens of the world, would say, too bad, the US killed lots of peace loving people too.  Get in the way, and you die."

A Synergic Response

Economist Wayne Perg proposes a win-win response to our present world crisis.

"I create true human and economic satisfaction not by consuming ever more, but rather by working together with others to create things and services, sharing them with others and appreciating them. The object of economic activity is not to "get more for less," it is to "do more with less."

"When we apply the correct object of economic activity to a massive investment in renewable energy sources, we will see this investment not as a cost, but rather as a gain that will produce satisfying jobs and economic growth while protecting our priceless environment. And we can at the same time take a major step toward disarming Islamic Terrorism, a true win-win."

My View as an Afghan-American

Mir Tamim Ansary is a noted author of books on native Americans, and Afghanistan. The following is from a letter he posted on the internet yesterday.

"Let me now speak with true fear and trembling. The only way to get Bin Laden is to go in there with ground troops. I think that when people speak of "having the belly to do what needs to be done" many of them are thinking in terms of having the belly to kill as many as needed. They are thinking about overcoming moral qualms about killing innocent people. But it's the belly to die not kill that's actually on the table. Americans will die in a land war to get Bin Laden. And not just because some Americans would die fighting their way through Afghanistan to Bin Laden's hideout. It's much bigger than that, folks. To get any troops to Afghanistan, we'd have to go through Pakistan. Would they let us? Not likely. The conquest of Pakistan would have to be first. Will other Muslim nations just stand by? You see where I'm going. The invasion approach is a flirtation with global war between Islam and the West.

And that is Bin Laden's program. That's exactly what he wants and why he did this thing. Read his speeches and statements. It's all right there. At the moment, of course, "Islam" as such does not exist. There are Muslims and there are Muslim countries, but no such political entity as Islam. Bin Laden believes that if he can get a war started, he can constitute this entity and he'd be running it. He really believes Islam would beat the west. It might seem ridiculous, but he figures if he can polarize the world into Islam and the West, he's got a billion soldiers. If the West wreaks a holocaust in Muslim lands, that's a billion people with nothing left to lose, even better from Bin Laden's point of view. He's probably wrong about winning, in the end the west would probably overcome--whatever that would mean in such a war; but the war would last for years and millions would die, not just theirs but ours. Who has the belly for that? Bin Laden yes, but anyone else?"