1998 retired Lt. Col. (Dr. Robert Bowman) letter

[Artur F. Silva]

At 22:25 12-10-2001, Julie Hotard wrote:

Thanks, Julie. I have printed your message and only now I had the
oportunity to read it. And yes, the words of the American President
of the Institute for Space and Security Studies are worth reading.

They are so clear that I wonder why they are not understood by the
American Government and the war pundits. Is it that the economical
interests they are affiliated to prevent them to understand? Or is it that
they still live in an old (medieval?) paradigm - like the one of the
talibans - and are not aware of it? Or both?

Anyhow, I am sending above again the parts that I found more interesting.
Those parts are also the ones that, in my opinion, are more related to a
very interesting point that I found in the link Chris sent to us (see next
post)


Artur
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>The Long and Short of Terrorism and Security
>
>by Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret.
>
>In 1998, I said that if the lies about the causes of terrorism go
>unchallenged, then the terror war now unleashed will likely continue
>until it destroys us. We are not the target of terrorists because we
>practice freedom, democracy, and human rights, but because our
>government denies these to people in the Third World whose
>resources are coveted by our multinational corporations.

>(...) all my military experience
>and knowledge tells me that retaliation hasn't rid us of the problem
>in the past, and won't this time. If retaliation worked, Israelis would be
>the world's most secure people.

>  (...) The long-term solution is to stop making new terrorists and render
>current ones impotent.
>
>Only one thing has ever ended a terrorist campaign -- denying the
>terrorist organization the support of the larger community it
>represents. And the only way to do that is to listen to and alleviate
>the legitimate grievances of the people.
>
>A massive military retaliation causing the deaths of thousands of Arabs is
>the worst possible thing we could do. It would only guarantee an endless
>supply of fresh terrorists for decades to come. We can have security, or we
>can have revenge. We cannot have both.
>
>If indeed we can prove the guilt of Osama bin Laden or others, we should
>indict  them as common criminals. This would be supported by the vast
>majority of the world's Muslims (..)



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