Ken,
With the greatest of respect, civilians have been on the front lines since
German bombers, supporting Franco, carpet bombed Madrid. After that, it
was civilians in London and Manchester, in the Battle of Britain. Then it
was civilians in Dresden, Nuremburg, Hamburg, Tokyo, Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. And let's not forget the over 1 million Russian civilians that
died in WWII - it is often forgotten that the Russians suffered by far the
most civilian casualties in that war. And so it goes. Since WWII, massive
civilian casualties have become a fact of war.
All of this far pre-dates terrorism (or at least the type of terrorist acts
we've seen in the last 20 or 30 years).
And again, with the greatest of respect, terrorists do indeed understand
massive force. But they react by massive force of their own. Look at
what's happening in Israel and Palestine - and please, I'm not saying who's
right or wrong here. But look at what's happening: a Palestinian car bomb
goes off in Tel Aviv. The Israeli army retaliates by blowing up a few
"suspected terrorist" houses. A Palestinian suicide bomber kills more
innocent Israelis. Israel seals off a town, or bombs a suspected terrorist
enclave. Violence escalates, and spirals out of control.
And, don't forget, many terrorists are "international". If we (the West)
go after Bin Laden by showing massive force against his "state sponsor",
Afghanistan, he'll just move to another country. If Bin Laden is killed,
his followers will move, and the violence will escalate in retribution.
You mention Libya. But let's not forget Iraq. Ten years later, after
Desert Storm and a debilitating trade embargo which has killed hundreds of
thousands of Iraquis due to lack of food and medical supplies, Saddam is
still around, with a highly motivated population, and still a threat.
I don't know what the answer is. But I do know that upping the ante does
not work. Massive force does not work. It only results in the deaths of
innocent civilians on both sides. Yesterday's horrible events are evidence
of that.
regards,
frank
Ken Archer wrote:
> Frank,
>
> Today's terrorists have rewritten the rules of war. In prior wars
> there were soldiers and there were civilians. Civilians are now on the
> front lines as evidenced by yesterday's attack on the World Trade
> Center. Terrorists use the only thing they understand to get their
> way...force. The only thing they will respond to is massive force.
> You need only look at Libia to see what happens when we go after those
> who support terrorists.
>
--
"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist
fears it is true." -J. Robert
Oppenheimer
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