What an interesting idea!
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From: Alex Levine
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 11:50:06 -0500
RETALIATION–A MODEST PROPOSAL
For the past two days, since the fateful events of the morning of
September 11, we have been considering what should be done.? It has
generally been assumed that when we discovered the identities of the
perpetrators, we would make some effort to bring them before our courts,
and that when that failed, we would bring the full force of our military
to bear on them, and on those who harbor them.? If we, as a nation, are to
show true leadership in the fight against terrorism, we must indeed be
forceful.? But if our fight is to have any hope of success, we must also
be creative.? We must think outside Hammurabi’s box in our pursuit of
justice, and peace.
Our tremendous ingenuity as a species seems strangely absent when it comes
to confronting threats from each other.? Failed strategies are repeated,
and repeated, though history has demonstrated their futility. Athenian
treatment of the Melians did not win them the Peloponnesian War.? The
American Civil War was won before Sherman’s torching of Atlanta, not
because of it.? Our Israeli friends have gained nothing from their policy
of collective punishment–not only have they failed to make peace with
their neighbors, or even to guarantee their own safety, they have
implicated their allies.? The efforts of Palestinian militants now seem
less likely than ever to win for their families the safe and secure
hearths we all desire.
Our reactions to violence are repeated with such dismal regularity because
they are instinctive.? But we are not, or not exclusively, creatures of
instinct.? Can we do better?? Perhaps.? First we must ask what we hope to
gain from our response to Tuesday’s attacks.? What we want, it seems, is
to end the threat of terrorism, to restore our feelings of safety, to
assert our national self-confidence, and yes, to impress upon the world
the extent of our wealth and power.? The following proposal has, I
believe, a good chance of helping to achieve all of these goals.? It
provides no guarantee of an end to the violence–and the only such
guarantee within our power is the complete destruction of humanity–but it
offers some hope of relief from the cyclic destruction of the past.
Like other solutions now being contemplated, this proposal will be
massive, expensive, and dangerous for the service personnel whose task it
will be to implement it.? It will involve harnessing the full resources of
our military, and the vast riches of our civilian economy. It will take
some time to prepare.
Once preparations are complete, here is how I envision it working:? our
bombers fly low over Kabul, Qandahar, Gaza, Aman, Khartoum, Bagdad,
Beirut, over all the surrounding countryside, over villages and refugee
camps.? They will be in harm’s way, but we will not ask them to linger.
Their bomb bays open, jettisoning their cargo, and our planes return
swiftly to base for reloading.? Below their fading contrails, parachutes
appear, each supporting a crate.? When these touch ground, there will
perhaps be some panic.? But when the crates fail to explode, the daring
and curious approach, ready to prize them open.? Here is what they will
find:? water purifiers, iodine tablets, baby formula, portable generators,
machine tools, farm implements, olives, salt, shoes, cloth, school books,
copies of the Koran, antibiotics, antimalarials, antiseptics, rice,
radios, kerosene heaters, power cable, sewing machines, calculators,
batteries, solar panels, diapers, safety pins, hair pins, bicycles, candy,
toothbrushes, sunscreen, saffron, dried apricots, notebooks, ledgers,
ball-point pens, refrigerators, baby bottles, stoves, art supplies, soccer
balls, tents, telescopes, and blankets.
There will be some who, in anger or disdain, incite their neighbors to
gather our gifts and burn them.? In the end, though, as wave after wave of
cargo arrives, more practical voices will prevail.? Consumables will not,
of course, last forever.? But the other things may make a difference for
years to come, especially if, like the Berlin Airlift, they are followed
with a Marshall Plan.
In recent years, in our strategic bombardments of Iraq or Serbia, we have
talked about “sending a message,” to Saddam Hussein, or to Milosevic.
The truth is, a bomb casing is a poor housing for any message worth
listening to.? We must tell those who despise us more than merely, if they
cross us, we will destroy them.? We must tell them that, if the world
order from which we profit is oppressive to them, that was never our
intention, that what we desire for them is nothing less than the liberty
and prosperity we ourselves enjoy.
It is also true that people with nothing left to lose will always,
inevitably behave like people with nothing left to lose.? Force and the
threat of force have no hold over them.? It is within our power to do with
our largesse what can never be done with arms.
No political leader who follows this course of action will ever be accused
of weakness, or failure to act decisively.? Indeed it strikes me as
demanding courage of the highest order.
It is possible that, given the title of this proposal, or its contents, or
the admitted and unabashed sentimentality of its tone, it will be taken in
the spirit of jest.? If so, that is not a bad thing.? In times like these,
we all need something to laugh about.? But if there are those who find in
this notion, or others like it, something more than a melancholy joke,
then that is a better thing.? To lose hope for a better world is to live
in a worse one.
Alex Levine
