The West is trapped by its own principles of freedom 2828

I'm afraid I don't see why you buttociate discipline with "whacking."

In the West, a long time ago (9th century), there was the application of a Platonic psychology that suggested that "disciplina" should be suited to the development of the person: Discipline of the body for children, discipline of the mind when they reached the age of understanding, and a discipline of the spirit when they became believers.

Today, it is often argued that discipline of the body ("whacking") is really counter-productive and is more the effect of a parent's frustration than a useful corrective for the child. As a parent of seven, I found this good advice sometimes hard to carry out, but I think the wisdom of the 9th century advice is that the form of discipline should be adapted to the current state or development of the person being disciplined.

The point is, if these so-called "persons" were indeed as significant as the press would have us believe, we can't just respond out of anger or frustration, but in a way that is most likely to yield results. All serious discussions of countering terrorism by violent means suggests that it is very unlikely to stop it, and far more likely to encourage more of the same. Timothy McVeigh received the ultimate physical punishment, but no one really thinks that this will have the effect of discouraging others from trying to follow in his footsteps.

In other words, these persons are not children, but very frustrated, often desperate, people, who are reacting to U.S. foreign and domestic policies and the social environment resulting from them. If the policies are a principle cause of terrorism, wouldn't it make sense to change the policies?

-- Haines Brown KB1GRM