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What endows a people with the rights and powers of national sovereignty?  Does a group of primitive tribes occupying a segment of land sandwiched between other nations automatically earn national sovereignty?  Do primitive tribes earn by default the benefits and respect afforded other established nations when they have lived throughout history as wild ruffians unable to coexist peacefully and productively with their neighbors, unable to farm and unable to build a societal structure resembling the many models set forth by Western Civilization and neighboring Asian cultures?

The civilized world was required to retaliate after September 11, 2001, against the terrorists who for decades had been pushing limits and building toward those attacks.  If the civilized world had continued to treat terrorists as spoiled, misbehaving children and only shouted back at them as it had since the end of the Gulf War, not retaliating with nearly full force, terrorist efforts would obviously have continued until they destroyed all civilized people.  After months of retaliation the civilized world has impressed upon Taliban, al Qaeda and other terrorist groups that their terrorist acts will not be accepted passively as they were in the 1990's.  These groups may now perceive that there is no gain.  They will only bring heavy force upon themselves if ever they attack civilized nations again.  However, being fanatics and therefore unable to learn from experience and logically apply lessons to adust their behavior, they are likely to continue doing the only work they know:  Terrorism.

Today the War Against Terrorism has taught lessons directly to terrorist groups in Afghanistan and indirectly to terrorist groups across the world.   The death and pain inflicted upon terrorist groups in Afghanistan is actually only learned by those individuals who die.  The remaining fanatics are regrouping, training and planning more global attacks and the retaking of Afghanistan's territory.   The roaming tribes of primitives who are not religious fanatics are already poking around looking for weak points in the interim Afghanistan government.  These Afghani tribes are resuming what they know to do:  Waging tribal wars.  These tribal wars will continue as they have for thousands of years and should not be confused with civil wars that civilized people of many nations have and will fight over principles.

The civilized world has made as much of an impression upon the terrorists of Afghanistan as can be made.  To continue bombing, cave fighting, building and teaching will be a repetitive, unending, fruitless project.  If the Afghani people are worthy of national sovereignty and capable of being civilized and building an economy and societal structure they can start today.  They have the same tools as every nation has ever had:  Their own initiative and abilities.  If they demonstrate progress they will have more tools and assistance than many nations have had:  Financial, educational and technological aid from the civilized world.

Terrorists who are native Afghanis as well as other terrorist groups continue to migrate to several terrorist enclaves including Afghanistan.

It is time for the civilized world to accept its gains, initiate redirection of the War Against Terrorism toward the next terrorist enclave, suppress terrorism there, and then continue the cycle.  Uncivilizable terrorist elements around the world must be taught by rote that they cannot make gains by attacking civilization.  If they do not join the civilized world and live civilized lives they must stay home and bully each other.

A suggestive sign: The 2002 Olympics, International Site Selection Committee payoffs, athletes' drug usage and tarnished gold medal judges:

The long-time traditional and ultimate celebration of achievement through hard-won skills with sportsmanship has today withered into a display of miscreant and arrogant cheating at all levels.

Pearl Harbor followed the technologically inspired omnipotence of the 1920's, the lecturing of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, the deprivation of the Great Depression, Hollywood's rise in 1939 to its all-time peak performance, battles between god-like essences such as William Randolph Hearst, Orson Welles and FDR types, each seriously flawed and battling in public like gladiators.

And, today...?

Sky Pollution

By Dwight F. Schonfeld, October 29, 2001

Another day done.

Commuting home.  I wonder if my wife remembered to wash her hands after she checked the mail….  Moon on my left, big red fireball on my right.  No clouds in between.  However, as I battle the traffic, I become aware of a major change in my thinking.

Between the moon on my left and the big red fireball on my right, instead of clouds, there are cotton strips of vapor trails from jet airplanes criss-crossing the entire sky.  On my right, the cotton strips look as if they've been soaking up red Kool-Aid and then the red-orange fades to a pale yet deeper mix, losing definition into the night sky on my left.

I used to look at those vapor trails and curse our development.   I used to think of how the natives of this land used the White River and the Flat Rock River for navigation.  They would not have been able to see the whole sky as I do now for the multitude of trees that used to be a part of this Hoosier landscape.   Here we are, a new landscape, new time, new sky.  Filled with this sky pollution… so I used to think.

I just hit a bump in the road and realized I'd traveled for some distance before I'd even hit a bump.  I think about the documentaries I've seen on a country devastated by years of war.  No roads, except for beaten trails in the dust.   Hours to pass before they can even travel a few miles.

Not so very long ago I was a part of a nation that closed it’s airports entirely.  No jet airplanes in the sky.  No Kool-Aid dipped cotton strips in the sky.  Quiet.  Eerie quiet.  No sky pollution.

As I drive home tonight, I'm looking at a very firm, broad statement in our sky.  Like a frayed burlap bag, dozens of jet airplanes, one after another, weave a beautiful, clear, dramatic pattern into the early evening sky.  The statement is clear.  We will not be stopped.  We will not cower.

Seeing that streaking of the vapor trails changed me in a very deep way.  Some people don't know who they are messing with, but I believe they are about to find out.

I’m an American.  I'm a Hoosier.  Don't mess with my sky.

* * *  END  * * *

Editorial Opinions  ---   WarInformation.com

Change:  "Many companies in a wide variety of industries are today using the War Against Terrorism as a cover to layoff workers, close plants, sell equipment and cancel planned investments.  These changes are probably valid in many cases where business has declined significantly in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks.  However, in some cases the changes are likely required due to: 1.) Changes in economic and marketing structures due to implementation of new technologies, 2.) Natural obsolescence caused by the use of new materials and manufacturing methods, 3.) Managements that failed to recognize and react to evolutionary changes within their industries and are now caught off guard, and 4.) Unproductive workers who failed to stay current and maintain work initiative.

At some point, depending upon the specific industry, management skills, worker initiative, durability of consumers and success in the War Against Terrorism, many companies whose outlook is not clear today will be in good position to reap major profits.  Other companies that did not handle recent events properly will not exist and will thereby hand their customers over to the better companies."

Change:  "The relatively petty civil wars (gender, racial, religious, 'it's my right', etc., etc.) being fought since the 1960's will be put in perspective and people can realize how foolish and time-wasting these distractions are.  Perhaps more civilized people can straighten up and get to work on real things."

Change:  "The September 11 attack compressed six to twelve months of what would have been ongoing recession into the last quarter of 2001.  The first quarter of 2002 will be the start of a roaring recovery."

Aren't the September 11 attacks the actions of Afghani and Arab people instructing the civilized world how it should live?"

Witness the imagery of the World Trade Center's bottom five floors standing slumped over on September 12, the ubiquitous surveillance cameras, the arguably needed biometrics ID cards, neighbors watching neighbors on federal orders, and more.

This new normalcy is a consequence of the crowded barnyard effect.   Too many of us are in conflict because subliminally we recognize that we are vying for limited resources and we do not understand that if each of us cooperates and does his job productively, we can all survive comfortably.  Moreover, due to a dumbing down of our educational system from pre-school through advanced university levels in order to meet requirements of the less educable, few of us understand enough about science and technology to have faith in its ability to save us from ourselves.

It is difficult for even an optimist to have hope.  The question is what results will impact us directly and indirectly and what may be the timing of these changes?"

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