I think LP was talking about the important theory 
of Blowback -- namely by responding harshly to 
terrorist actions, you will be seen as the 
problem and not the terrorists. Military action 
could easily destabilize an area as anti-American 
as the Middle East and spark off more conflict. 

As for pacificsm -- what's wrong with it? If 
you're horrified by what happened on Sept. 11, 
it's hypocritical not to be equally moved by 
casualties elsewhere. . . . It's just something 
to think about it. The problems in the world are 
complex. We need reason instead of passion to 
solve them.  

Still, I'm of the opinion that if Osama Bin Ladin 
truly cared for the people of Afghanistan, he 
should have surrendered himself up to the 
Americans a long time ago and faced the charges. 
The magnitude of the crime was too big for the 
Americans to ignore and everyone knew that it 
would come to this if he simply wasn't in their 
custody. As a friend said -- Americans aren't war-
like, but they're not peaceful either. (America's 
military budget is more than the combined budgets 
of the next eight largest military budgets. Scary 
when you think about it. Thank God America's 
never set their mind to world domination.) 


"I do not deny that society has the right to 
punish a criminal and the right to make the 
punishment fit the crime, but to kill a man for 
punishment alone is an act of vengence. Nothing 
else. Some would prefer to call it retribution, 
because that word has a nicer sound. But the 
meaning is the same. 

"My primary concern here is not compassion for 
the murderer. My concern is for the society which 
adopts vengence as an acceptable motive for its 
collective behaviour. Vengence and violence 
damage and destroy those who adopt them, and 
lessen respect for the dignity and rights of 
others among those who condone them.

"Respect for human life is absolutely vital for 
the rights and freedom we all enjoy. Even the 
life of the most hardened criminal must be 
accorded some degree of respect in a free socity. 
If we take that life without proven purpose, 
without proven necessity, then we weaken 
dangerously one of the fundemental principles 
which allows us to live together in peace, 
harmony, and mutual respect." 

- Trudeau on capital punishment.