Big Think

Question: What is your outlook?

Robert Thurman: But my point is that, that the, their competence of their way of going about it shows how desperate they are because the system that they sit astride of is no longer functional, you know I mean, it a hundred years ago, two hundred years ago the time of imperialism, colonialism and we know in a war, and the – that’s defined by Von Kozowitz the war theorist as meaning you not don’t just beat the enemy’s army you then make the enemy’s population do what you want and you have a colonial empire, and they produce goods for you and they do things for you, ‘cause then you can subdue them, but nobody can subdue anybody now.  They just don’t get subdued, even through a bunch of guys – we saw that in Vietnam, a bunch of guys wearing silk, black little pajamas running around in pajamas, kicked us right out of their country.  We were – people were falling off the sides of ships and gunned out of harbor, falling off helicopters and stuff, a bunch of guys in pajamas.

Recorded on: 6/1/07