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Military might doesn’t work

Jane Stillwater
Saturday November 03, 2001

Editor: 

Allegedly George Bush and the military have been given a “blank check” to stop terrorism. I wish someone would give ME a blank check. 

I am a low-income, single-parent mother who has put three out of four children through college and trust me when I say that I KNOW how to make an eagle scream  

You can bet your bippy that if I had three trillion dollars to play around with, terrorism would be a thing of the past – and it wouldn’t have taken me no four weeks of killing civilians in Afghanistan to do it! 

As a mother, I had to learn the hard way that the use of violence, humiliation and punishment is inefficient, ineffective and dangerous. 

Military might is COST-INEFFECTIVE. Punishment always leads to resistance. Humans all think alike. Adults are just kids that grew up. You want co-operation? You gotta use positive reinforcement! Ask any mom. Nothing else works. 

 

Jane Stillwater 

Berkeley