Steve McAlexander on Fri, 12 Oct 2001 20:14:01 +0200 (CEST)


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RE: [Nettime-bold] The State: Source of Our Problems



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What would you do if you were a bank owner that contracted with a security
firm to guard your branches? One day, a group of armed robbers
simultaneously stormed four of the branches, and successfully robbed three
and killed all the customers inside. In the process of robbing the fourth, a
group of your customers happened to hear a radio report that three of your
branches were robbed, and all inside killed. They banded together, and
foiled the robbery, although they died themselves. The security firms'
contract specifically states that they are responsible for all security, and
since this just a hypothetical case of two firms, the bank naturally made
failure to protect the branches a breach of contract. Furthermore, any
liability incurred for failure to protect the branches also falls on the
security firm.
As a rational CEO, you would fire the security firm, denounce their
incompetence in no uncertain terms, and make sure the next security firm
actually dealt with the problem, instead of giving it lip service, or taking
actions designed to stop, say, jay walking in front of the bank. The
security firm would be liable for millions in tort claims from you, the bank
owner for monies lost and property destroyed, and perhaps millions of
dollars in wrongful death claims from the relatives of those killed in the
robberies.
Now that we've taken this little exercise to its conclusion, let's compare
it to our present situation with the airports, the airlines, security, and
the FAA. In a previous essay, I recommended the abolition of the FAA. Seeing
how this is anti-state.com, I'll go a little farther. The entire apparatus
of the State is to blame for our lives being endangered. In a pre-taped
announcement, Osama bin Laden spells out in no uncertain terms what it will
take for terror attacks to on the United States to stop. First, get troops
out of the "Holy Land" of Saudi Arabia. This is his homeland, and the
spiritual homeland of Islam. We have ~6,000 troops there "guarding" "our
 oil" that the Saudi's just happen to be baby sitting for us. At least that'
s the mentality Washington City displays by keeping US Forces there long
after any possible threat of invasion from Iraq has passed. Not that there
ever was one, and if there was some remote possibility that Iraq invaded
Saudi Arabia, so what. They still have to sell us oil. In case you haven't
noticed, sand is hard to eat, and wheat just doesn't take to it.
Second in Osama's pronouncements to end terror attacks, is to cease our
killing of one million Iraqis, mostly children. Hey folks, he's a fruitcake,
but he's right. While we've been watching "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"
and contemplating the value of our tech sector stock portfolios, our
military has been doing some nasty shit in our name. "But we're protecting
the Kurds from Iraq!" Horse Apples. Go check the facts, and you'll see we're
not only not doing that, but we're actively looking the other way while our
ally Turkey kills Iraqi and Turkish Kurds with military hardware we sold
them. This ties in nicely with pronouncement number one. Why not get the
hell out of Iraq? Let them rebuild their shattered country with the money
from oil they WANT to sell us, but we won't let them. Then we can get the
hell out of Saudi Arabia while we're at it. Pronouncements number one and
two solved.
Third pronouncement from our Arab Hitler du Jour is the statement that until
the Palestinians are not terrorized, Americans will be. This is a thinly
veiled reference to our uncritical support for Israel. I have an idea. Let's
cut off all government foreign and humanitarian aid to everyone. Israel,
Egypt, and all the assorted African plutocrats that we prop up with dollar
diplomacy should be cut off. Then we should withdraw from the U.N. and kick
those no good socialists off Manhattan. Without our seat on the security
council to constantly run interference for Israel by vetoing resolutions
condemning their occupation of Palestine, it would be pretty hard to point a
finger at the U.S. and say we support terror against them.
The objections are already forming in your mind. First will be the old "we
can't give in to terrorism, it will only breed more terror." Folks, we're
not dealing with a dog begging for table scraps and some kind of Pavlovian
conditioning. These folks have a reason for wanting what they want. Put
aside the atrocity of 9-11 for a minute and ask yourself if there's a grain
of truth in any of what the terrorists are asking for. Yes, the means are
despicable. Then realize that we've killed one million innocents in a
country of 23 million. Realize that we would be pretty pissed if foreign
troops were stationed outside New York to protect us from Canada. The reason
terrorism works is because the terrorists keep at it as long as they think
they have the moral high ground. Think of France and Algeria, The United
Kingdom and Northern Ireland, the Serbs and The Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Each time, the attacks stopped when the occupying force left.
The next objection will be "We can't just let Israel be destroyed." I don't
want to see genocide. I also don't want to support a naked land grab half
way around the world. If you're so keen on Israeli security, why not send
them a personal check when we cut off foreign aid. You'll have more money in
your pocket. If you're still gung-ho on Israel, why not go over there and
sign up for the army? I think Israel would be forced to end their occupation
and really try to make peace if we weren't shoveling them cash at the rate
of $8.2 million dollars per day. As it stands, they keep putting settlements
on Palestinian land, squatting on the old "principles" of might makes right,
and possession is 9/10ths of the law.
In the final analysis, it really is the State that's gotten us into this
mess. Our founders said the only reason government exists is to protect the
rights of the governed. What we've got is an out of control empire with
troops all over the world, and it's finally caused more trouble than it can
"protect" us from. From the military and the planners that indirectly caused
this by antagonizing the world, to the morons at the FAA who's security
couldn't protect us on 9-11, and still can't, to the extra police that
uselessly guard the airports, while terrorists plan the next attack on some
other piece of infrastructure, to the keystone cops in the FBI, CIA, and NSA
that now predict that another attack is certain, but don't know where, the
entire apparatus of the State is revealed for the worthless hoax that it is.
Let's scrap the whole thing, and aim for the unknown ideal of
anarcho-capitalism.

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