No moral relativism for me, not for killers like al-Zarqawi. Even if he had a valid political point somewhere deep inside his ideology, and I'm not saying he did, go like Gandhi and I'll take it seriously. I don't believe all ends, maybe any ends, justify any and all means.
Zarqawi was particularly into beheadings whether over the Internet or overnight in the village he and his band of slaughterers took over, leaving them out in the morning to terrorize the populace and squelch dissent. Congrats to our armed forces for eliminating him.
The big question is: Has the "Iraqi insurgency" been beheaded?
We'll see over the next days and weeks, and while I sure hope so, I'm not betting on it. The insurgency has long since turned into sectarian violence, and that appears to have morphed into civil war.
I won't go into how we're in an ends/means swirly ourselves, but I will link to Eric Alterman on why today's successful elimination of a very dangerous man means so much less than it would have four (4) years ago when, as NBC's Jim Miklaszewski revealed:
...long before the war the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself -- but never pulled the trigger. The reason? 'People were more obsessed with developing the coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute the president'’s policy of preemption against terrorists,' according to terrorism expert and former National Security Council member Roger Cressey.”
Someday, perhaps, heads will roll.
3 comments:
yo mark, its gideon. just letting you know that i just got wow. IM on silver hand. ill let you know more info once i make my char.
Thought you'd appreciate that Nettertainment has comprtitioon, in Tunghu..........
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~dheb/Tirane/Tunghu/MCtunghu.htm
Communications and Media
Tirane, being a core world, has a fully connected communications net linking the entire planet with voice, visual, and data communications. Calling a person in New Canberra is essentially no different from calling a person in the same district. Advanced software in use in Tunghu can even lessen, but not remove, the language barrier.
Electronic advancements have not done away with the daily newspaper, although all newspapers publish on the net as well as in print.
Tunghu Broadcasting Service and Manchurian National Broadcasting are the two mainstream broadcasting services based in Tunghu. Both run a variety of typical video, radio, and multimedia programming throughout the day, including news, educational shows comedy, drama, music, etc.
One company specializes in netcasting- providing public programming only over the communications net with no electromagnetic broadcast at all. This is Tirania Nettertainment, a Tunghu based firm that provides programming throughout Tirane. Being computer network based rather than broadcast, they have some abilities their conventional competitors lack. For instance, they can tell advertising clients who is watching and what they’re watching, moment to moment. Second, they can offer tailored, viewer directed programming. They can also offer interactive programs. As computers progress, increasingly seamless interactive shows are being released, in which the viewer actually becomes a character in the story being watched, and can effect the plot. The distinction between game and show becomes increasingly blurred. This hasn’t been successful as most would think. Many viewers do not want to think and act; after a stressful day making sales, they want to come home, flick on a wall screen, and be entertained. Also, many interactive player/watchers soon learn they lack the talents of professional writers, and when they try to create a story they only screw it up. Tirania Nettertainment is still growing, although it has a reputation for being even more radical and cutting edge than the Tunghu Broadcasting Service.
It's worldwide Nettertainment movement.
Post a Comment