  The usual goodness. :) Stephen has two posts up that I really like, both about war and wartime situations. The first is about urlLink hostage situations and two paragraphs really struck me: Last September we learned the truth: the most important thing is to maintain control of the jet itself, and to achieve that we must be willing to sacrifice everyone on it. If you don't give in to hijacker demands, they may horribly murder everyone on board. But if you do, they can use the jet to kill far more people on the ground.
The hard logic of war is that it's better for those on the jet to die than for more people on the ground to be killed. No-one will ever make that mistake again. You have to take the long view. You have to consider secondary effects of what you do. That applies to airline hijackings, and it applies to politically-motivated kidnapping. There's a temptation to give in to the demands of the kidnappers, to give them what they want in hopes of getting the hostages back safely.
That's a mistake, because if you do then you encourage them to kidnap others. The cold hard logic of war requires that you treat hostages as dead. ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ Unfortunately this is so very true now. I've been travelling on planes since I was a baby and I've always felt safe flying; now I'm not sure how I'll feel once I get back on a plane. Will I be called upon to try to defend other passengers form a raving lunatic? Will I be forced to give up my life in order to save countless others such as the brave people did on Flight 93? Would I die for my friends? No question; the answer is a resounding hell yes. They're the extended family I never had and I'm pretty damned close with them. We've done a lot for each other and that's one thing I know I'd do. But like everyone else, I hope I'm never put in that position.
Why does the temptation exist to give in though? Because it's worked countless times in the past. You could land the plane, bargain with the hijackers and get the passengers out of danger while you talk with them. Like he says in the first two lines of this post, " If we dealt with the hijackers, gave in to their demands, then we'd be able to get those people on the jet freed, and that was a success.
" Never again will this be possible. We are all now responsible to fight back since we know what atrocities can be committed with our lives. ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ The other post is about urlLink types of war and in order to understand it you have to read it in full. It applies to what's going on with NATO right now. Damn good. I learned more from that post than from what people are reporting on. ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ Good link found via urlLink Cut on the Bias on urlLink how to deal with telemarketers .
Interesting especially in the wake of the "opt-out" phone lists for telemarketing; I know I joined the list and now I know what to ask for if they decide to call me anyway for this crap. ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ Interesting article about urlLink ancient Native American ingenuity of a sophisticated canal system and large pond dug about 1,700 years ago. [via urlLink VodkaPundit ] ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ And, before I go to sleep, let me leave you with something funny via urlLink Dave : urlLink RPS!!! WOO HOO!! Come on, you know you've played this game at least once in your childhood... ; ) ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ Well, enough blogging sillyness for now...See you in the mornin!
:) 
