What Should We Do About Terrorism? Editorials by Harry Browne.

[TheYellowDog]

http://www.harrybrowne.org/TerrorismSeries.htm

"Here are editorials by Harry Browne presenting approaches the U.S. government should take in response to the September 11 attack — as well as offering a long-term foreign policy that will make future attacks on America much less likely.

Understand that there is no "perfect solution" to the September 11 problems. Once you have created trouble, prices must be paid. The important concern now is that America act in ways that will minimize future trouble."

These editorials are kind of old, but I thought I would post them because we just had the 9/11 anniversary and all. Harry is a Libertarian and a peace loving kind of guy. What he talks about in this editorials is what the proper response should be to terrorism, and how the proper response is not killing innocent civilians who don't even know us, and certainly don't hate us.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28690

Here are some snippets from this editorial of Harry's:

I frequently get e-mails from people saying that I only complain – and never offer solutions to the terrorism problem. <http://www.harrybrowne.org/TerrorismSeries.htm|That isn't true>, but here's a laundry list of "Do"s and "Don't"s regarding the war. (And please note that it doesn't include being nice to the terrorists.)

What to do:

Repeal the regulations that prohibit guns on planes – and that mandate metal detectors and security searches at airports. Before those measures were introduced in 1973, there were no reported cases of passengers shooting each other by accident or in arguments. There were a few hijackings using guns, but far fewer passengers actually died than have been killed since introducing the security measures.

Recognize that 9-11 was a trillion-to-one shot that couldn't be duplicated in a million years. So don't turn America upside-down, causing billions of dollars in losses to companies and business travelers to prevent the repetition of something that most likely won't happen again anyway.

Find Osama bin Laden, capture him, and try him in America. He must have a fair trial – consistent with the rules of evidence and the Bill of Rights. If he's killed without a trial, he'll become a martyr throughout the Muslim world – creating hundreds of millions more anti-Americans who will support future acts of terrorism. If he isn't really behind the 9-11 attacks, killing him without a fair trial terminates the hunt for the real criminal – leaving us in danger. So prosecute anyone who shoots him on sight.

Declare an end to the so-called War on Terrorism. Call it a victory, a defeat, or an armistice. But quit acting as though it's an excuse to invade any country or take away our civil liberties.

I really suggest that you read these editorials if you want to. Harry Browne really has some great ideas.

Reply to this thread if you want to.

[Martin Eden]

1. What to do?

Harry Browne lost me with the very first two:

Repeal the regulations that prohibit guns on planes

Recognize that 9-11 was a trillion-to-one shot

Let me get this straight. Allow passengers to carry guns on planes, presumably to out-gun would-be terrorists from carrying out another trillion-to-one attack.

I don't buy the argument that because there were no "accidents or arguments" involving guns on planes prior to 1973 that there wouldn't be incidents now. There have been many recent cases of mentally unstable or drunk people going berserk on planes, and in today's fearful and paranoid climate armed passengers would constitute the biggest danger aloft. And all it would take for a successful act of terrorism is for one suicider to blow out a window at 30,000 feet.

I'm not a big fan of Ralph Nader, but I was impressed by his answer to the question of what he would have done after the 9/11 attacks. He said if he were president there would have been no attack because for years he stressed the need to strengthen cockpit doors to prevent hijackers from gaining control of the plane.

I'm all for knocking about a variety of ideas, but the first two from Browne dissuaded me from reading the links to his editorials.

[TheYellowDog]

2. Please!

Read the editorials! I agree that idea is kind of crazy in a post-9/11 world, and especially in an aircraft flying at 30,000 feet, but his other ideas are good. He advocates a non-interventionist foreign policy, and believes that no American troops should ever have to die in a foreign war. For instance, these two are good ideas:

Find Osama bin Laden, capture him, and try him in America. He must have a fair trial – consistent with the rules of evidence and the Bill of Rights. If he's killed without a trial, he'll become a martyr throughout the Muslim world – creating hundreds of millions more anti-Americans who will support future acts of terrorism. If he isn't really behind the 9-11 attacks, killing him without a fair trial terminates the hunt for the real criminal – leaving us in danger. So prosecute anyone who shoots him on sight.

Declare an end to the so-called War on Terrorism. Call it a victory, a defeat, or an armistice. But quit acting as though it's an excuse to invade any country or take away our civil liberties.

I really believe Mr. Browne has some great ideas with respect to this.

[Martin Eden]

3. OK

I read all the editorials in the first link, and I must admit Mr. Browne quite often makes a lot of sense. He very lucidly explains that it is our foreign policy that is provoking acts of terror against us, and that bombing innocent civilians of impoverished countries is not going to make us safer.

His historical analysis of previous interventions is very interesting -- especially his contention that by intervening in WWI we triggered a series of events that led to the rise of Hitler and Stalin -- and the bloodbaths that followed.

Much of what he says is speculative, but I find myself agreeing with him more often than not. He's an extreme isolationist, but I'd choose that option over our current course.

Some of his proposals are a bit daft, like the constitutional amendment in which the only members of congress eligible to vote for a declaration of war are those between the ages of 18 and 35 or who have children/grandchildren of that age.

Yellow Dog, methinks more people would have read Browne's Libertarian editorials if you hadn't represented him with perhaps his most asinine proposal about guns on planes. Nevertheless they were an interesting, and mostly good read.

[OldCurmudgeon]

4. those are daft on all SORTS of levels...

Repeal the regulations that prohibit guns on planes

Recognize that 9-11 was a trillion-to-one shot


I've argued with libertarian friends about this. They seem to be unable to imagine that it would be a drunken Joe Sixpack who's seen too many Rambo movies, that would be the most likely person that decides they just have to pack heat on a plane and "save" everyone.

Which is why, ultimately, it doesn't matter. The feds could completely drop their gun prohibitions tomorrow. Does anyone with a functioning brain think that the airlines (or their lawyers) would then let someone on a plane that is carrying a gun? Even the most rabid libertarians generally recognize "my house, my rules", so if airlines say "no guns" then it doesn't matter what the government says.

A repeat 9-11 IS a longshot. Anyone that tries it now, no matter how heavily armed, will be torn to shreds by unarmed passengers. Arming the passengers now would just make hijackers die quickly and neatly; slow death by bare-handed mob is a bigger deterrent.

Unfortunately, all too many libertarians have bought into the Shrub & Rush propaganda and are betraying their professed core beliefs. It's time for them to wake up and realize that they've been duped.

on edit:fix HTML

[TheYellowDog]

5. Libertarians have not betrayed their professed core beliefs

Harry Browne bashes Bush almost every week on his radio show.

[OldCurmudgeon]

6. "all too many libertarians" != "all libertarians"

I personally know some (you'd recognize their names) that have turned into dittoheads. Sad.

Others have kept their faith.

Please do not try and turn my limited observation to an over-broad generalization.

[TheYellowDog]

7. I know some have

Namely Larry Elder. What a gasbag.

[Terwilliger]

8. no wonder you hate me so much

hey Jacob :hi: