Posted by Matt Wilson on Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 7:37PM :
In Reply to: OUR innocent people! posted by Bryan on Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 4:30PM :
The real problem is, if we are hasty in our retaliation we will get the wrong people and create more new enemies (yes, believe it or not, more enemies can be made). And if we go in and leave a smoking hole where the uninvolved citizens used to live, we will also create more enemies and we will be dealing with this situation even more in the future. Furthermore, if we find that Bin Laden was the mastermind behind this, the problem is getting to him. He tends to hide in the mountainous regions there. We can do our damndest to turn their mountains into smoking holes, but we might very well never get him. It's not necessarily realistic. We have to get the right people.
Overt warfare is not necessarily the answer, even if it does make us FEEL better about it all. Remember, the USSR tried for years to fight these people and eventually left without accomplishing anything.
A very famous terrorist in the 1950's once stated that in dealing with terrorism you get nowhere by "using tanks against field mice." What you must do is "use cats against the mice." In other words, infiltrate the terrorist organization responsible for the acts, and take out every individual involved, from the lowest to the highest. Also, make any individuals, governments or other institutions who assisted or harbored these cowards, pay for their involvement in it.
If we can find involvement by a government and if we can take out their military or related factories, then that may be one possible action, but you still have to get the people ultimately responsible.
Don't misunderstand me: He who sticks his head up should have it cut off, but wiping out enormous numbers of their citizens who didn't have any involvement will almost certainly not gain us much.
These people obviously have no regard for human life, even the lives of their own people. After all, their own governments actively participate in eliminating them much of the time. Killing huge numbers of their fellow citizens may or may not accomplish much, and could gain us new enemies.
And no, I'm not a bleeding heart liberal. I'm just realistic.
Matt
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