Understanding Iraqi Resistance

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 24 May 2004 12:00:00 GMT

# Charley Reese at LewRockwell.com - A Sense of Wonder - a good reminder. It really is all for the children, but not just for them, physically, but for their sense of wonder and unabashed joy, all of which is still inside every one of us, if we have eyes to see. Mr. Reese can stand war if it's between soldiers. But there's no bearing dead children, unless your soul is dead. [lew]

There is an old Greek myth that children live in heaven until it's time for them to be born. When they first arrive on Earth, the memory of heaven is still with them, and that's what gives them that wonderful glow of innocence and wonder. Children are indeed wondrous creatures.

Sometimes, when cynicism and despair scratch at the door of my heart, it is the thought of children that makes me keep those wicked creatures out. As long as there are children there is hope. They provide us all a motive to keep trying to fashion a better world. We might have forfeited our right to a decent world, but the children haven't.

# Elias Alias at The Claire Files - Are we going a little overboard here? - the title came from a new message board member, Paul Bonneau, known to Elias, but not to the others. They lit into him pretty hard, so Elias showed the proper way to correct a friend who hasn't yet quite realized that no government works like no government. [clairefiles]

After reading your posts on this thread, I see that you are not aware that the 2nd American Revolution has begun. It is also apparent to me that you have been so busy looking into the "theory" of a free state that you have overlooked the fact that the two terms, "free" and "state" cannot co-exist in the same space and time. Not in reality. As two words, their very definitions contradict each other. You really ought to smoke a joint and ponder the truth of that. There simply cannot be a "free" "state". I've had run-ins here and elsewhere with other men who still believe that government is controllable, can be shaped and managed in such a way that it shall only benefit mankind. For all their good intentions, such believers are hardly worthy to participate in many discussions here, for they are still subject to externalized authority. This place has attracted a hardy group of individualists ranging in philosophical tastes from Voluntaryism to AnCapism-with-attitude and more. Some of the regulars here defy any definition at all, and I'm sure I'm not the only person here who deeply appreciates every one of them.

You see, Paul, statism is simply seen now to be merely statism. That is all it is. The acceptance of government is simply the manifestation of a pathological psychology which cries out for a master, for some external authority, for some source of authoritarian power which shall keep other people off one's back. (It does that, up to a point, but then it finally grows and replaces one's tormentor's boot with its own, and the boot of government is much more systemitized and mechanized and organized and subsidized than any band of rogue neighors could ever be.) Governments do all the things you've listed throughout the thread, including mass murder, as you admit, and yet you seem to be resigned to playing some light-footed lottery-game of hide-and-seek in avoiding the government's targeting, but never but you do not yet seem to see that governments do not have to be here in the first place. You're gonna find that many folks here have an artistic grasp on the meanings of current and recent history, and that they have foregone the drudgery of re-analyzing where or how government went wrong. Many here see government as organized evil, and so do I. But it is just as I said: you're on a different tier than the common mentality you'll meet here. There are more people in America right now like you than there are like the members of this board, imo. You may have come to a good place to get an education! :)

# Kim du Toit - Why We Shoot Women And Children - certainly makes sense from the perspective of the U.S. soldiers in Iraq, but what the Iraqis are doing makes sense, too, as I attempted to explain in a comment to this post: [kimdutoit]

Kim,

What would you do if China bombed Washington and New York, and San Francisco, and Boston, and Dallas, and Denver, and Atlanta, and Miami, and LA and then put 500,000 troops on America soil and started hunting down "insurgents"? They would of course use rhetoric of "liberating" Americans from their oppressive government. Would you be surprised if some people gave rifles to their kids and let them have at it?

Of course it wouldn't work that way here, since we, unlike Iraq, have a huge military, so we might not need to resort to guerilla tactics, at least not early on. But their army is destroyed, so they have no other way. Sort of like the American Revolution, eh? Mel Gibson's "Patriot", where his sons fired muskets at the English oppressors.

Now I'll admit that America's government doesn't look as opressive as Iraq's to my American eyes, but I can understand why American soldiers would be viewed as an occupying army by many Iraqis. They are fighting for their way of life just as you and I would fight for ours were some foreign military in our country. If your kid were "collateral damage" from some Chinese bomb, the fact that the Chinese were attacking a "military target" with a "precision bomb" wouldn't squelch your rage.

-Bill

GeekWithA.45 - As much as I'd WANT a Libertarian to be president, It. Won't. Happen. In. 2004. - scroll down past the Michael Moore rant to find this. The Geek implores us to support Bush in 2004 so that Kerry won't win. My comment: [geekwitha.45]

Vote from the rooftops!

I'm only slightly kidding. Bush or Kerry in the White House will be a disaster. The only difference will be the flavor of the rhetoric. Our rights will be eroded, at a rapidly accelerating pace, whether the communist or fascist branch of the Boot on Your Neck Party gets elected this time around.

There is no longer any way to turn it around peacefully except to anticipate the collapse of the government and be prepared to survive through its death throes and the chaos of the decade or two following its death. The USSA government will follow the USSR government into the dung heap of history. And good riddance. Hopefully, we'll preserve the concepts of liberty that are at the core of our culture. Our government hasn't supported those concepts since before the Great Depression.

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Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair