SOLUTIONS: Suggestions for Long-term Security


The simple title above belies the fact that no terms have been defined for "security", either on this page or by the United States - nor what cost it would be willing to pay for what level of security. Might the price for 'total security' come with too high a price tag, namely serious constraints on American freedom and privacy? Beyond that of course, lies the question of whether security for the U.S. is possible in an insecure world: is global security part of American security?

We hope to post some interesting and unusual posts via this page addressing all of these aspects or more. Please contribute! email: Solutions

Articles and Resources

NEW The folly of quick action in Afghanistan - by Ashraf Ghani. Commentary on useful approaches to Afghanistan.
"The US administration has two options. It can either deal with the symptoms and the visible symbols of the extremist movement or it can address the underlying causes of terrorism and support forces that would be willing to disrupt and destroy the networks that have turned Afghanistan into a launching pad for isolationist and extremist movements."

NEW Powering out of terror
"Force is not nearly enough. We need to drain the swamps where these young men thrive. We need to devote a much higher priority to health, education, and economic development or new Osamas will continue to arise." (Jessica Stern)

NEW Now, engage the world - Uncovering the Value of Multilateralism - by Tom Vellenga
"Like other national tragedies before it, this awful and historic moment presents an opportunity. The administration should send clear, systematic signals that we shall, in fact, accept our mantle of responsibility and lead nations in a multilateral approach for the sake of our national interest not just in a campaign to defeat terrorism, but in every international sphere."

NEW Terrorism cannot be defeated by terrorism - by Jonathan Power
"Will new compromises be made that America will come to rue in ten or twenty years time?"

NEW Is it possible for America to say 'Sorry'
"But where does hatred take us, where does revenge, where does it end if, as President George Bush says, "there are no rules"? Do we want to make the situation worse or do we want to take a momentous leap of imagination and reach out to make it better?"

NEW Loyal Opposition: IDEAS, NOT MISSILES? - Counter Methods for Countering Terrorism
by David Corn, Washington editor of The Nation

Bomb Them with Butter. Bribe Them with Hopea
by Kent Madin

Lessening the Costs of Empire
by Scott Henson


Participant Comments follow below
It is high time for the living to get tough, for toughness is indispensible in the struggle to safeguard and develop the life-force; this will not detract from their goodness, as long as they stand courageously by the truth. There is ground for hope in the fact that among millions of decent, hard-working people there are only a few plague-ridden individuals, who do untold harm by appealing to the dark, dangerous drives of the armored average man and mobilizing him for political murder. There is but one antidote to the average man's predisposition to plague: his own feeling for true life. The life-force does not seek power but demands only to play its full and acknowledged part in human affairs. It manifests itself through love, work, and knowledge.

Anyone who wants to safeguard the life-force from the emotional plague must learn to make at least as much use of the right of free speech that we enjoy in America for good ends as the emotional plague does for evil ones. Granted equal opportunity for expression, rationality is bound to win out in the end. That is our great hope.

-- Wilhem Reich, 1946

(excerpted from the preface to "Listen, Little Man!")


Robert K. Funkhouser    rkf@cybermesa.com
09/29/01 18:57:52 MDT