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Sharon Quarrington sharonq at pdesigns.com
Fri Sep 21 08:54:58 PDT 2001


Another perspective on Feeding the monster:

September 20, 2001
Eli Berniker

Guerilla Warfare: Carpet Bombing with Food

We are preparing for war. We will send our cruise missiles into useless
targets in Taliban territory where the best we can do is kill a few
innocent standbys. The action, whatever it's costs and no matter how
powerfully executed, will be entirely symbolic.  Moreover, it is self
evident that its effects will be exactly what Bin Laden wants. It will
solidify Islamic support against us.

This will not be a war against terrorism.  Anti-terrorism is what we do
here or in Europe.  In Afghanistan, we will be faced with guerilla warfare.
Guerilla warfare has a long history going back, at least, to the Maccabees
who drove out the Greeks, the Romans who only reconquered Israel at
prohibitive cost. They did so by destroying all of the people. There was no
other way.

The British tried to conquer Afghanistan twice and lost as did the Soviets
after them. The Germans never did succeed in stamping out guerilla forces
in Yugoslavia, Poland, and Norway for all their efforts. We faced similar
challenges unsuccessfully in Viet Nam.  Given two thousand years of
experience, it is clear we could not have "won" in Viet Nam without killing
off most of the population.

The grand master of guerilla warfare was Mao. During WW2, the communist
underground pinned down vast Japanese armies trying to control northern
China. Mao identifies two key principles for guerilla success. First, they
can pick their battles. They pick the ones they can win. Standing armies
are forced to respond. So, we will go to Afghanistan fighting according to
Bin l;aden's rules, not ours.  Second, guerillas have the advantage of
being invisible. They are of the people, among the people, and hidden by
the people.  That was amply demonstrated in Viet Nam.

If we are to destroy Afghanistan as a base for terrorism, we must impose
different rules on the guerillas and undermine their ability to remain hidden.

How?  Some years ago, in a simulation of crisis management, one "president"
player decided to bomb the enemy with food with all kinds of positive
results. Let us contemplate such a strategy as a means of destabilizing the
Taliban.  Suppose we carpet bomb Afghanistan's villages with food and
medical supplies.

First, we should note that this is a cheap offensive.  A colleague asked,"
How much food could you buy for one cruise missile?"  Far more than you
could carry in many 747's.  Suppose, our initial symbolic action will only
cost one billion dollars.  We could lease many aircraft being grounded by
our airlines, take out the seats, and hire them to airdrop the food and
supplies. The food won't cost much. We have mountains stored at great
cost.  We are talking about bags of flour, wheat, beans, and maybe cooking
oil. They do not eat supermarket food over there.

Second, it will be hard for anyone to oppose such an action. We could use
bases in the old Islamic Soviet republics. Food bombing does not represent
a threat to the Russians. It will be easier to do from Pakistan. Even the
Iranians might prove helpful if they see this as a way to turn back the
thousands of refugees clamoring to cross their borders.

Most critical, will the impact be on the Taliban.  Will they forbid, in the
name of Allah, their people the right to eat this food in the face of
starvation?  If they allow them to eat this food, how do they explain its
origin to their people? The rationality of their Islamic fanaticism will be
confounded, confused, and challenged in the hearts and minds of those who
eat our food. That is destabilizing and a serious threat to their ability
to govern.  The very intractability of the Afghani countryside that enabled
them to win makes it extremely difficult to govern.  Peopl will simply opt
out which is exactly what we want them to do.

If Bin Laden's rules make only symbolic responses possible at this time, we
should aim our actions to destroy the symbols that sustain the Taliban and
his terrorist activities.

As food and medical supplies are dropped into Afghani villages and
circulate among the people to be hidden, the anomaly of the terrorists will
become apparent.  As Afghanis eat our food, the logic of terrorism will
make less and less sense.  And when that logic fails, hiding terrorists
becomes increasingly problematic. Given that the Taliban and the terrorists
have brought little joy to the people of Afghanistan, it should take very
little to make more visible.

Most important, carpet bombing with food can be done rapidly.  While we are
busy softening the enemy's hinterland with food, we can take our time to
select and execute those military battles we can win just like guerillas do.

*
*
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>From  Fri Sep 21 17:43:09 2001
Message-Id: <FRI.21.SEP.2001.174309.0100.>
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 17:43:09 +0100
Reply-To: simon.nash at talk21.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Simon Nash <simon.nash at talk21.com>
Subject: Re: Open Space report, 21 September 2001
In-Reply-To: <001201c142a6$8da3a140$cb00a8c0 at martin>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Open Space Report
9-21-01 (somehow it feels right to put that the American way round today)

Reporter and participant: Simon Nash

A circle was marked out in the sand with a piece of driftwood. By high tide
tonight this circle will first fade, then become as big as the whole ocean.

Several crows and seagulls joined, but didn't want to share the space for
too long with the loopy English Setter dog who was running around with the
talking stick in his mouth.

Absent participants were represented by their photographs, their writings or
an object that I associate with them. (Perhaps I'll name these in a later
post). Other objects that I found on the beach represented those I didn't
know who were also sharing this space.

I announced the theme of Harmony in the world and then returned to the edge
of the circle.

In the inbreath I was aware of connecting with some of the others who were
sharing this space - in the outbreath a sense of sharing Breath with those
whose breath is at the moment choked with grief or fear. Not much was said.

When it was over, I carefully collected the personal items and piled the new
found items in the centre. The crows and seagulls hung around a while as one
experienced talking stick user and one novice open spacer made their way
back home.

Hope these few words honour the experience and the intention behind it.
Peace and love
Simon


-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of Martin
Leith
Sent: 21 September 2001 15:06
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Open Space report, 21 September 2001


Open Space report, 21 September 2001, 1230 UK time

Convenor and reporter: Martin Leith
Participant: Maria Canney

We formed a circle of six chairs. One was occupied by Maria, the other five
were empty.

I stated the theme: Opportunities and choices for nurturing life as though
creation is precious and our Creator matters.

We discussed the theme and amended it to: Opportunities and choices for
nurturing life because creation is precious, and for harnessing human wisdom
and creativity for the greater good.

We discussed the similarities between this theme and our company’s vision,
which is for a world in which co-creating is the norm.

I reminded us of the four principles and one law of Open Space Technology,
and we talked about basing our business, and our whole lives, on these. The
words ‘Be here now’ seemed to be important to us.

Our matrix of times and places had times on the horizontal axis, reaching
from 2001 to infinity, and places on the vertical axis, reaching from the UK
to the entire cosmos to infinity.

We imagined an Open Space facilitator, invisible and infinitely wise, doing
nothing and holding the space.

We reminded ourselves of all the other people around the world opening space
at this time (1230 UK time) and throughout today.

Our conversations included the book Talking With Angels
(www.daimon.ch/Mallasz4.htm) which has been a profound influence on my life
(see below), A Course in Miracles (likewise) and The Transformation Game,
which for many years featured in my work.

The ‘angels’ say that there are seven souls of life:

CREATED WORLD (matter)

1. Mineral

2. Plant

3. Animal

*      *      *      *      *      *      *

4. Man (sic)

*      *      *      *      *      *      *

CREATING WORLD (glory)

5. Angel (peace, silence)

6. Seraph (radiating force, pure joy, shining power)

7. The Seventh (mystery)

The task of humans is to live on the fourth level and become a conscious
link between the created and the creating world, so that the seven souls are
united. To do this requires love, freedom, giving, awareness and living our
individual tasks.

Imagine a menorah with seven candle holders. The fourth level is the central
candle holder. When humans live up to their full potential, the first candle
holder connects with the seventh, the second with the sixth, and the third
with the fifth. The seven chakras and the seven rays seem to be significant
here too. We should not focus solely on matter (lower chakras), or on spirit
(higher chakras), but on an integration of matter and spirit.

I noticed how Open Space gives people a taste of living on the fourth level.
(Here at The Innovation Agency our code word for this is co-creating.)

The space was declared open. We moved on to the next session.

*      *      *      *      *      *      *

Martin Leith

www.theinnovationagency.com
www.martinleith.com

*
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