13 September 2001
Israel Is-real (and other topics)
Life got somewhat back to normal today.
I spent the working day engaged in normal political risk analysis, focused on Uzbekistan. Interestingly, Uzbekistan has a guerrilla rebel/terrorist problem that has emerged as a threat to the regime almost as rapidly as the Maoist rebel movement in Nepal. The Uzbek rebels have links, unsurprisingly, to the Taliban as well as Osama bin Laden. I wonder if we won't continue to see such groups emerge rapidly. Scary stuff.
I can't help but note the behavior of many libertarian internet acquaintances, most of them woefully ignorant about international politics and history, who are nonetheless altogether happy to make pronouncements on foreign policy that are just laughable. It's been tempting to respond to a few of that crowd, but it's a waste of my time. Honestly, people who spell Israel "Isreal" when announcing authoritatively that nation shouldn't exist plainly do not possess the knowledge or context to have an intelligent discussion about international politics or US foreign policy. My engaging them would be to give their nonsense a sanction it does not deserve. I would rather spend my discretionary time talking to those who would benefit (and those who would benefit me).
The crowd to which I am referring have underscored a feeling I've had since Tuesday. The minute I heard reports of the World Trade Center being hit, and then the Pentagon, I had the opposite reaction of most people. People in DC, I'm sure, wished they were anywhere but. I wished I was IN the Pentagon, engaged in the national security policymaking for which I've been trained instead of sitting in private industry telling companies where terrorists might try to blow up their infrastructure and kidnap their personnel. Don't get me wrong -- I LIKE what I do, but I think patriotically when my country is attacked, especially when I've been trained in the detection and prevention and making of war. Even though I'm not there, I'm thankful that competent people are, people who know how to spell Israel.
[Posted @ 11:08 PM CST]
