Samizdata

Over 3000 mostly American civilians die when Al Qaeda terrorists hijack four civilian airliners and crash two of them into office buildings in New York. A 22 year old Catholic postman is gunned down in the street by the ‘Loyalist’ Red Hand Defenders in Northern Ireland. Six Israeli Jews are gunned down during the bat mitzvah of a 12 year old girl by a Palestinian terrorist with the Al Asqa Martyrs Brigade, an offshoot of Fatah.

In none of these cases was there any pretence that the people being murdered were military targets or in any meaningful way part of the apparatus of state. They were just members of the wrong collective group.

Collectivism is the real world manifestation of the subjective, emotion based feral animal origins of humanity, like some recurring echo emanating from the primitive reptile brain that physically exists in all of us. It is the antithesis of rational objectivity, something that no amount of fancy verbiage from Marx or Chomsky or Himmler or Plato or Rousseau can disguise in their respective paeans to force and unity over intellect and evolution. Collectivism is a fancy word for tribalism. It is a hold over, an atavistic throw back to times before the modern civilisation of the extended order.

And then I see a huge protest against violence in Northern Ireland like the one today. A great and wonderful angry howl against sectarian violence by both catholics and protestants together, all revolted by the madness in the hearts of paramilitary murderers. And there, amongst the grim faced ranks of ordinary people standing under their umbrellas in the rain, I catch sight of members of the Orange Order, of Sinn Fein, of the SDLP, of various well meaning ‘left’ and ‘right’ wing groups, all calling for unity.

Wrong.

Tragically, terribly and utterly wrong.

The world already has enough ‘unity’ to kill every man woman and child one hundred times over. The lasting repulse of tribal violence will not come from ‘unity’, which is just an appeal for the creation of a different, larger tribe to combat the ‘other’ tribes, but rather individualism: the explicit rejection of every tie that comes not through choice but from force. Do not mistake collective action for collectivism, for it is the latter, not the former, that both ‘left’ and ‘right’ has on offer.

The answer is not ‘Unity’, which is just short hand for ‘join us, not them’… the answer is ‘Don’t tread on me’

“Speciesism is a prejudice or attitude of bias in favor of the interests of members of one’s own species and against those of members of other species. Speciesism is wrong for the same reason racism and sexism are wrong–because all beings interests should count equally. Peter Singer refers to this as “the principle of equality”. “All the arguments to prove human superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering, the animals are our equals”. For any individual who can suffer, the degree of suffering, not the species of the sufferer is what should count”

I promise that I have not made this up. It is lifted from the ‘Animal Rights’ section of ZNET which, quite deservedly, has a link in our ‘Havens of Fluorescent Idiocy’ section

Must rush now. I’ve got a member of another species nicely browning off under the grill.

Amidst the hand-wringing of the chattering classes about the fate of the Al Qaeda members now enjoying an extended break at Club Fed in Cuba, it may be useful to examine the claim that they are prisoner of war and, therefore, should be treated in accordance with the provisions of the Geneva Convention.

The Convention they are referring to is Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War and the defintion of ‘Prisoners of War’, contained in Article 4, includes ‘…militias and volunteer corps’. However, important provisos are set out in Subsection A (2):

“(a) That of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates;

(d) That of conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war”;

In order to be classified as ‘Prisoners of War’ militias or volunteer corps must satisfy all of the above conditions.

It is my view that Al-Qaeda fails to satisfy any.

(a) Al-Qaeda operates by means of an autonomous or, at least, semi-autonomous, cell structure. They are therefore not commanded by any identifiable person.

(b) Anybody seen the Al-Qaeda flag/symbol/pennant/banner? No, neither have I.

(c) Whilst the combatants in Aghanistan most likely did bear arms openly, other Al-Qaeda operatives moving and living undercover in up to 60 different countries around the world cannot possibly be carrying any arms openly.

(d) The attacks in which Al-Qaeda is implicated have, in most cases, been against civilian targets and devoid of any obvious or identifiable tactical or strategic purpose other than to cause terror and widespread fear. It is my view that is not within the laws or customs of war.

Therefore, it is my view that the US government has a very good case that the Al-Qaeda members do not qualify as ‘Prisoners of War’ and are, therefore, not entitled to the protection of the provision of the Geneva Convention.

Of course, this does beg the question of the status of the US actions. Do they constitute ‘war’? Well, possibly not but call it a ‘military action’ or a ‘police action’ if you will. For that matter, call it a ‘Ballroom Dancing Competition’; the point is to prevail.

Rand Simberg made a cute observation about this war taking on Pythonesque dimensions which I find highly apposite in view of what the war has done to Libertarians.

Prior to 9/11 we were united in grim struggle against the predations of our respective governments and the ‘liberal/left’. Since 9/11 we have cleaved in two; now we are Anti-war Libertarians and the Warblogger Libertarians. The former find themselves lining up with Noam Chomsky and the latter have locked step with Christopher Hitchens. We fire pixelated Katushya rockets at each other over the Green Line of cyberspace

Of course they are now the Judean Peoples Front and we are the Peoples Front of Judea. Or is it the other way around? In any event they are the Splittists!!