[Peace] Neo-Con Events (4/21, 4/24) - Students for the Defense of America

[Jay Morris]

Folks,

Here are a couple of articles by Tracinski.  These read as if they've
been pulled straight from The Onion.  Sadly he's actually serious
about this nonsense:

http://www.moraldefense.com/ProTech/Archives/EDPC.htm

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1001/tracinski101101.asp

and here's a bio:

http://capmag.com/author.asp?name=2

Bayer and Dalton are part of the local objectivist club.  These talks
could give some useful insight into the wackiness of objectivism.

Bring a vomit bag and some Advil.

jay


----- Original Message -----
From: <msimon at uiuc.edu>
To: <peace at lists.groogroo.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2003 9:23 PM
Subject: [Peace] Neo-Con Events (4/21, 4/24) - Students for the
Defense of America


> Hello all,
>
> This is to bring attention to the two upcoming events
> sponsored by the campus registered organization, Students for
> the Defense of America.  Read the abstracts!  Scary!  It
> would be great to have a strong group from AWARE present at
> these events.
>
> For the 4/24 Robert Tracinski lecture, please email me if you
> plan to attend.  Tracinski is a prolific writer from the Ayn
> Rand Institute and The Intellectual Activist whose pearls of
> wisdom I'll post soon.  If the AWARE delegation is large
> enough, we might also consider flyering at the event.
>
> Thanks,
> Mike Simon
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 4/21/2003  Teach-in: "Winning the Wider War: What America
> Must Do Next", a series of short presentations and Q&A
> featuring UI professor of economics Fred Gottheil and several
> graduate students, 7:00pm, 160 English Building (Directions:
> west side of quad, along Wright, between Daniels and
> Chalmers)
>
> 4/24/2003  Live speaker event:  Robert Tracinski, “The Peace
> Process War: How the ‘Peace Movement’ Created Modern
> Terrorism”  7:30pm, 151 Loomis Lab (Directions: north-east
> corner of Green and Goodwin)
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "Winning the Wider War: What America Must Do Next"
> A Teach-In
> Monday, April 21
> 7:00pm
> 160 English Bldg.
>
>
> "Failed Societies and Modern Technology: A Dangerous Mix,"
> Fred Gottheil, professor of economics
>
> September 11th destroyed not only the World Trade Center, but
> the way we view our future. The "clash of civilizations," as
> much as many like to deny it, is upon us. This presentation
> will address the economic implications of terrorism, and what
> our proper response should be.
>
>
> "Terrorism, Rogue States, and Weapons of Mass Destruction,"
> Susan Jellissen, graduate student in political science
>
> Many, including leading Congressional Democrats, have argued
> that the war on Iraq would detract resources from the war on
> terrorism, thus implying that there is a distinction in terms
> of "threat" to be made between the two. Threats to U.S.
> national security arise, however, not only from "terrorism",
> but from the confluence of terrorism, rogue states and their
> production or access to WMD. This presentation will focus on
> the strategies that can be pursued in order to eliminate
> these threats to American lives and prosperity.
>
>
> "The Right to Self-Defense,"
> Ben Bayer, graduate student in philosophy
>
> The governments of free nations have the obligation to defend
> the rights of their citizens, an obligation that stems from
> the citizens' right to self-defense. This talk will discuss
> the roots and the implications of the right to self-defense.
> It will explain why only the governments of free nations may
> legitimately exercise the right to self-defense, why free
> nations maintain the right to invade and liberate threatening
> dictatorships, why this includes the right to
> take 'preemptive' action against threats, and why the
> possibility of innocent deaths in war ought not to be a
> primary constraint on the prosecution of wars of self-
> defense.
>
>
> "Why They Hate Us, Really,"
> Andrew Dalton, graduate student in chemical engineering
>
> Ever since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we
> listened to endless analysis and hand-wringing by Western
> intellectuals. These intellectuals insist that we discover
> the "root causes" of terrorism in the foreign policy of the
> United States. They ask, "Why do they hate us?" and provide a
> ready answer couched in terms of our nation's alleged
> oppression, hegemony, and interventionism overseas. However,
> the facts about terrorism and American foreign policy do not
> support this popular theory. Terrorism against the United
> States correlates weakly with actual American intervention,
> but strongly with the ideology of the terrorists--radical
> Islam in particular. This presentation will argue that
> terrorist ideas are the true "root cause" of the danger we
> face
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "The 'Peace Process' War: How the Peace Movement Created
> Modern Terrorism": A speech by Robert W. Tracinski
> Thursday, April 24
> 7:30pm
> 151 Loomis Lab (map)
>
> "In another era terrorist attacks would have been regarded as
> an obvious provocation for full-scale war. Yet over the past
> 30 years, thugs such as Yasser Arafat and the Ayatollah
> Khomeini developed the new strategy of the terror war--a war
> in which terrorism is not a prelude to armed combat, but a
> substitute for it. What makes that kind of war possible? The
> contemporary 'peace movement,' which paralyzes the victims of
> terror and prevents them from fighting back with all of their
> overwhelming military power. In this talk, Mr. Tracinski
> examines the underlying meaning and deepest philosophical
> roots of pacifism, explains why such an obviously disastrous
> idea has such pervasive influence (even on political leaders
> who are not pacifists) and shows how the 'peace movement'
> determines the very nature of the terror war, from its
> broadest outlines to the day-to-day 'cycle of violence' of
> the Mid-East 'peace process.'"
>
> Mr. Tracinski is a nationally-featured op-ed columnist and is
> the publisher and editor of The Intellectual Activist, a
> magazine analyzing political, cultural, and philosophic
> issues from an individualist perspective. His commentary has
> been published in the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco
> Chronicle, Cincinnati Enquirer, Los Angeles Daily News, San
> Jose Mercury News, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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