A bully is someone who oppresses others he thinks weaker than himself. To bully is to intimidate or force through fear. Terrorism is a policy of using or threatening acts which inspire terror as a method of conducting politics. The bully and the terrorist are morally indistinguishable from each other. The only difference between them is that the bully is generally perceived to be powerful whilst the terrorist is relatively weak. Terrorism is a natural human reaction against being bullied.
The people of Iraq could overthrow their own bully if they made a concerted and determined effort to do so. Interference by a bigger foreign bully has a poor record in history.
If President Bush really is dedicated to enforcing United Nations Resolutions, he could find a more appropriate alternative target, not very far from Iraq, which also persistently and blatantly flouts UN resolutions, whose guns seldom stop smoking, and which has long been a principal inspiration for terrorists.
Iraq's chemical and biological weapons (if any) do not threaten "mass destruction" without a means of delivery which, should their use be seriously contemplated, could hardly be concealed from aerial, electronic and UN Inspector surveillance.
As for giving aid and comfort to terrorists, there is hardly a country in the world that can avoid doing so, even if only inadvertently. "Nine-Eleven" should have taught President Bush that lesson.
So there is no genuine case to be made for a war on Iraq. Yet Bush and Blur are willing to bully (or, if that doesn't work, defy) the Security Council of the United Nations, the only body which can confer legitimacy on any military action. We can only guess at their true motives. If they dare not tell us what they are, they can hardly be honourable.
So perhaps we may hope that Bully Bush may inadvertently do us a favour by so splitting Bully Blur away from his European Would-be Confederates that the UK will not only refuse to opt into the Euro but decide to opt out of the EU altogether.
When you think about it, is it not obvious than none of the foregoing categories of bully would exist without compulsory taxation? Hence the most effective way to combat political bullying must be through resisting compulsory taxation by progressive utilisation of all available means — though ideally stopping short of terrorism if at all possible.
Politicians get away with extortion by subtly perpetuating the fallacy that without compulsory taxation, civilisation would fall apart. Is it not clear that civilisation is already falling apart in spite, if not because, of ever-increasing taxation? The main effect of compulsory taxation is to weaken the economic power of the individual person and to concentrate the resulting aggregated power into the hands of a small number of bullies on whom the vast majority then become dependent. This diminishes scope for the independent exercise of personal responsibility in the performance of good works. It transfers control over the provision of essential personal services from efficient and effective private enterprises, dependent on their customers, to inefficient and ineffective state monopolies dependent only on the controlling bullies. I refer, particularly, to the most personal of all services, education and the care of the sick.
Standing back and looking as objectively as possible at the political charade that currently passes for democracy, is it not obvious that compulsory taxation is just a sophisticated variation of old-fashioned slavery?
This Web site is a modest example of an educational facility which is provided free of charge. Jesus and the Therapeutae of ancient Greece healed the sick free of charge. If we collectively looked after our own health and helped to educate our own friends, relations, and neighbours as best suited their talents and inclinations, there would be no need for elaborate concentrations of material facilities and vast organisations of mercenary professionals that just get in the way of people seeking to behave naturally towards one another.
"Perfect love casteth out fear". What is the worst that could happen to you if you were as a last resort to refuse to pay any bullying taxes at all? Killing you would end all hope of your making a contribution. If you were sent to jail, your tax-paying capacity would be greatly diminished, the costs of keeping you there would defeat the object, and the jails would be full anyway. Refusing to pay any fine would not make your situation any worse. If the bullying authorities should resort to some form of corporal punishment, it would merely stiffen your resistance and rally more people to your cause. When you really think about it, you will see very clearly that the Bully behind Compulsory Taxation is powerless against determined resistance by sufficiently large numbers of the bullied. What you need to start with is the courage to point that out to him (or her) and to those who share your plight.
But mere resistance is not enough. You must also demonstrate your love positively in any way you can. And if your example catches on, the people around you will eventually seek to outdo each other in finding ever more effective ways of helping to feed, clothe, house, educate, tend, heal and help their neighbours as and when the need arises. If members of bullying governments and their attendant bureaucracies forsook their ivory towers and joined in real life, there will be fewer political bullies of any significance and fewer excuses for terrorism.