{"id":15797,"date":"2011-11-21T12:00:45","date_gmt":"2011-11-21T12:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=15797"},"modified":"2011-11-18T01:40:04","modified_gmt":"2011-11-18T01:40:04","slug":"the-bouncer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2011\/11\/the-bouncer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bouncer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a story to think about:<\/em><\/p>\n

A bouncer [security thug] at a night club doesn\u2019t like the looks of one of the customers. What makes matter worse is that the customer is loud-mouthed and vilifying night club bouncers, saying that they are the ones who should be kicked out of the club.<\/em><\/p>\n

The bouncer takes a night stick that he has for just such an occasion, walks over to the table where the noisy customer is ranting and raving.<\/p>\n

Then, without further warning, the bouncer bashes the noisy customer\u2019s head with the night stick. The customer falls to the floor, dead.<\/p>\n

People who see what had happened ask the bouncer why he beat the customer to death.<\/p>\n

\u201cShut up,\u201d shouts the bouncer, \u201cHe was armed, and I had to stop him before he destroyed us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you stop him at the door if you thought he was a danger?\u201d asks one of the club\u2019s patrons?<\/p>\n

\u201cI did,\u201d argues the bouncer. \u201cWhen I accused him of having a weapon, he denied it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The patron is flummoxed. \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you search him?\u201d<\/p>\n

The bouncer, becoming impatient with the sceptical crowd, proclaims, \u201cI told him to prove he didn\u2019t have a weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEh?\u201d questions another patron, \u201cYou asked him to prove that he didn\u2019t have what he didn\u2019t have?\u201d<\/p>\n

The bouncer insists, \u201cThat\u2019s right, it\u2019s called \u2018pre-emptive\u2019 challenges, leading to pre-emptive strikes, leading to pre-emptive elimination of pre-emptive dangers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another patron chimes in, \u201cNow that you\u2019ve eliminated the pre-emptive danger, where\u2019s the weapon that led to your pre-emptive strike?\u201d<\/p>\n

Becoming even more upset with the challenging questions of the patrons, the bouncer declares, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter. He has a bad reputation for using weapons, and he could do it again in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tell us who\u2019s the bouncer with the clever justification for pre-emptive action by insisting that one must prove that he doesn\u2019t have what he doesn\u2019t have?<\/p>\n

My friend, there are many bouncers. One of them, Condoleezza Rice appeared on Jon Stewart\u2019s show a week or so ago and tried to convince an audience of dunces that the bouncer rationale was justification for the war on Iraq.<\/p>\n

Hers was an echo of many cunning leaders who have used the same bouncer self-justification for the most heinous crimes. The list includes insidious leaders like George W Bush, Tony Blair, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.<\/p>\n

Feeding these treacherous leaders have been duplicitous Israeli firsters pretending to be American patriots, including figures like Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith.<\/p>\n

Iraq wasn\u2019t enough for the pre-emptive strikers. The next target using the same disingenuous arguments is Iran.<\/p>\n

America knows that Iran does not have nuclear weapons; but the bouncers want to destroy all of Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities so that no weapons will ever be made.<\/p>\n

America has already made the bouncer\u2019s demand, saying to Saddam Hussein: prove that you don\u2019t have what you say you don\u2019t have\u2013an impossible demand, used only to provide an excuse for bouncers.<\/p>\n

According to Mark Amstutz, \u201cPre-emptive attack is morally justified when three conditions are fulfilled: The existence of an intention to injure, the undertaking of military preparations that increase the level of danger, and the need to act immediately because of a higher degree of risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

The advocates of pre-emptive attack are attempting to meet those conditions with the flimsiest evidence and erroneous assumptions. Though Iran hasn\u2019t attacked anyone for more than a hundred years, their detractors argue that Iran wants Israel driven into the sea.<\/p>\n

If that\u2019s not enough, stories have been fabricated about Iran\u2019s purchase of material that can only have military use, attempting to give the lie to Iran\u2019s stated objectives for nuclear energy.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s \u201cundertaking of military preparations\u201d has been no greater than those of any other developing military, and much less than any nuclear power. To assert that test firing a few rockets amounts to unacceptable military preparation completely ignores the vast superiority of Israel\u2019s military might, including 200 to 400 nuclear bombs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe need to act immediately because of a higher degree of risk,\u201d is a spurious argument that applies to all countries, Record pre-emptive strikes (in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq and Syria), as well as colonial occupation and destruction of Palestine, makes Israel the consummate high degree of risk.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu tries to rally cabinet support for an attack on Iran. Israel\u2019s defence minister Ehud Barak and foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman are among those backing a pre-emptive strike to neutralize what the Israeli hawks dub Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions.<\/p>\n

Of course Lieberman would encourage a pre-emptive strike. His preparation for the foreign minister\u2019s role? He was formerly a night club bouncer!<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 veteranstoday.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a story to think about: A bouncer [security thug] at a night club doesn\u2019t like the looks of one of the customers. The bouncer takes a night stick that he has for just such an occasion, walks over to the table where the noisy customer is ranting and raving. Then, without further warning, the bouncer bashes the noisy customer\u2019s head with the night stick. The customer falls to the floor, dead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15797\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}