Bill wrote: What was interesting about Jonathan Chait was that it is similar to havin Tom Hayden offer advice to Richard Perle. Here are a couple of paragraphs by Chait:
VOICE: Jonathan Chait, The New Republic Why Liberals Should Support the War by Jonathan Chait @ http://www.thenewrepublic.com/doc.mhtml?i=20021021&s=chait102102 It's Working (Complete Text) There is a virtual consensus in the American media that Israel's military operation in the West Bank will invariably fail. "Even as Israeli officials flooded the airwaves Friday to cast the military operation in Ramallah as a defense against future terrorist attacks," reports Time, "a 16-year-old Palestinian girl blew herself up outside a Jerusalem supermarket, killing two Israelis." An editorial in today's Washington Post condemns "Ariel Sharon's futile attempt to end terrorist attacks with a military invasion and confinement of Yasser Arafat." A funny thing, though--everybody was so busy talking about the futility of the Israeli operation that nobody has noticed its one, unambiguous success: a sharp decline in the suicide bombings. There hasn't been a suicide bombing since Monday, and that one injured one person and killed nobody. This suggests that the assumption underlying all the coverage of the West Bank--that Sharon's operation is bound to fail--may be entirely wrong. Indeed, if the Israeli campaign can substantially reduce suicide bombings, the entire moral calculus underlying it changes. No suicide bombings since Monday? That's a short streak. Of course, there was one recently of over 4 weeks, and that's the progression we want to see. I'm still unconvinced that reprisal for reprisals is the answer, and we sadly see in N. Ireland that even good negotiations, signed agreements and length of time in relative peace don't last if the underlying cause is not addressed so that all parties begin to imagine a better way to live and work to that end instead of terrorism either by suicide bombs or tanks. Ireland was in recover, but religious bigotry dies hard. Of course, those who don't believe that peaceful resolution will work in the I-P crises will jump on the N. Ireland news this week that only military deterrence will resolve the situation. Let's briefly - and generally - look at Japan and the Koreas. After invading Korea, occupying the country, raping their resources and their women, the two countries, Japan and S. Korea, were forced by treaty and eventually the realities of mutual trade to become allies in an evolving post-WW2 environment. This did not happen overnight, and they do not share borders or contested ancestral land. However, there has been a historical racial animosity and cultural gap, so for the purpose of my argument here I'm trying to establish that economic incentives, demographics and native inventiveness can overcome decades of compelling and overriding fear between peoples. As far as I can tell, the economics of the ME is light except for oil and a little manufacturing, agricultural and dot.com business, otherwise it's tourism. I wait to be inundated with relevant material from FWers. Why isn't the capitalist West aggressively pursuing viable Marshall Plans for the region? Because it's too unstable! They fear for their investments, if not their lives. Look what happened to the Irish economy while they weren't bombing each other to pieces! Bullets and barbed wire do not a thriving economy make. This is the danger Al Qaeda seems posed to exploit: turbulent third world countries with struggling economies and turbulent demographics. I would hate to see Israel sustain itself as Indonesia did under Suharto, a military regime in camouflage with few liberties and less prosperity. For the Palestinians, it can't get much worse, or at least I hope we are going to turn a corner soon. Karen Watters Cole East of Portland, West of Mt. Hood Outgoing Mail Scanned by NAV 2002
