Clusterfuck Bollocks

Don't get James Howard Kunstler talking about 9/11 conspiracy theories. He should stick to Peak Oil and financial meltdowns, where he can be amusingly snarky. And for god's sake, don't bring up Arabs: they seem to be his personal untermensch.

From a strategic point-of-view, 9/11 required a severe punitive response against the people responsible (casualties were higher than the attack on Pearl Harbor, 1941). That meant against an Arab people. Since the act was not perpetrated by any Arab nation per se, this left the US in a quandary. And of course, it begs the question: why was such a response even required?

Yes, and since Irish people are behind all the IRA bombings in the world, the appropriate response is to re-annex Ireland.

Jim: the problem is that what you are talking about isn't strategy at all - it's madness. Apocalypse Now 'Are my methods unsound?' - 'I don't see a method at all, sir' lunacy. It's also collective punishment, which is not ethical nor desirable or (in this case) that effective. "Severe punitive response against the people responsible" - I have no problem with that, if you actually choose the actual people responsible (like Osama bin Laden), rather than the people responsible (Arabs). And if you are going to blame a multi-million ethnic group for the work of a score or so of dead hijackers, you're a fucking loon.

Why can't more war commentators be like the War Nerd, who talks about war so jovially, yet makes so much sense? The opposite is the rule - polemicists who take themselves so seriously, and with little sense to show for it.