(Note to literalists: the Watched column presently contains only a smattering of 'warblogs' because the facilitator of the template-change--Dr. Menlo--is not very familiar with them, and will be adding more as they are sent to him. Also, this blog may contain areas of allusion, satire, subtext, context and possibly even a dash of the surreal: wannabe lit-crits beware.)
Control
[Watch this space for: Pentagon and Petroleum, The Media is only as Liberal as the Corporations Who Own Them, Wash Down With, and Recalcify]
Civilized societies have found it harder, though, to beat the barbarians without killing all, or nearly all, of them. Were it really to become all-out war of the sort that Osama and his ilk want, the likely result would be genocide -- unavoidable, and provoked, perhaps, but genocide nonetheless, akin to what Rome did to Carthage, or to what Americans did to American Indians. That's what happens when two societies can't live together, and the weaker one won't stop fighting -- especially when the weaker one targets the civilians and children of the stronger. This is why I think it's important to pursue a vigorous military strategy now. Because if we don't, the military strategy we'll have to follow in five or ten years will be light-years beyond "vigorous."
Therefore we conclude:
1) According to Reynolds, genocide may become a valid option for the US to pursue in its war against 'Islamic terror'. What is genocide? As a law professor, one can safely assume that when Reynolds uses the term, he uses it with some understanding as to its proper meaning. Defined in Articles II and III of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide as: "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such". In other words, genocide doesn't mean merely attacking the terrorists, but it means to intend to wipe off the face of the earth all those people who share the same nationality, ethnicity, race or religion as the terrorists.
2) Reynolds clearly believes that the genocide carried out against the native American population was 'inevitable' because those 'injuns' just wouldn't stop fighting back. In other words, they asked for it.
