Everyone has feelings, and most of us have opinions of how this should go from here.
I think most of us are against a full-scale war, but not all of us.
I hope to see it happen like this: I want us to find who did this as fast as possible. If it was a domestic group, we will find them, and they will pay. If it was a foreign terrorist group, we will find out where they are, and we will make it SO undesirable to harbor them that they will not be safe in any country. Then we will eventually get them and make them pay.
If, however, this was the act of an actual nation against us (seems really unlikely, but the facts ARE sketchy) then we should engage in some terrorism of our own. Find all of the military and government targets, and go in from the air. Do not let the bombing stop for days, I don’t care if the targets aren’t there any more, let there be a constant roar as the planes drop load after load of bombs. I mean like constant-volume, to the point where one explosion can’t be distinguished from the next one, or the next 100. When the smoke clears there will have been minimal loss of innocent life, and that will be one country that will never, ever be able to mess with anyone again.
Just my immediate reaction. How would you like to see this play out, relatively realistically?
I would like to see whoever is responsible caught, persicuted, and forced to pay for the rest of this life. And then I would like to see them reincarnated into an Earthworm, and become the pet of a small child, over and over and over.
I wish it were so simple. It is a paradox of the highest degree. If imprisoned, there will be hostages and demands for his release. If killed, there will be reprisals as well. Left alone, I fear, enbolden by their success, there will be more killings.
I’m not sure how you wage war against a loose alliance of non-Governmental groups. I do think that before today using ground forces was not a politically viable option for any US Administration. That’s now changed.
There is no other option, IMHO, to ensure getting Osama Bin Ladin. It’s either truly the most difficult Special Forces operation imaginable or a very major military operation to take out the man and the training camps.
We can be sure the options are currently being weighed. My inclination is to think Bush will go for the second option.
I want to see 'em captured and “taken care of” by a local government that doesn’t have any of those silly “cruel and unusual punishment” prohibitions, and is trying to do all it can to prevent Lucky’s suggestion from being necessary.
hmm. Considering how pissed off I am about this whole thing, I might want to revise my wishes tomorrow after I’ve calmed down.
I say that whoever it is, blow them all to hell. Kill their wives. Kill their children. Then kill them. Then kill anyone who ever helped them. Then tell Isreal to do what they want with the Palestinians for cheering at the attack.
The Mick-kill their children? So we’re no better than them?
I want them to find out who did it, and then deal with them. JUST THE ONES BEHIND IT. I don’t want war, or bloodshed. I just want it all to end. I don’t want anymore dying.
I don’t want a Hollywood ending. I don’t want Our Hero to utter some nifty catchphrase, cut to a look of mad desperation by the Nefarious Miscreant, cut back to Our Hero shooting/blowing-up/whatever the bad guy. I want him/them captured alive and brought to public trial. I want them to be tried fairly. I want them to have the best damn defense attorneys out there. And then I want them declared guilty (because these are the real perps, not the wrong guys). Then whatever punishment is declared necessary by the mechanism of American justice is what they deserve.
I would like to see a formal, legal, Congressional declaration of war upon every single one of the countries on the State Department’s list of terrorist states. I mean that.
There are governments that use terrorism as an instrument of policy. Make that policy untenable, and make ‘em pay SO FUCKIN’ MUCH that the message will be clear, unmistakably clear. Painfully clear.
Whoever did this should be the SPECIFIC target of our reaction, when and if they are ever known. But the GENERAL targets should be Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, et al, for engaging in this despicable form of “diplomacy”.
We should be at war with several countries in 24 hours, and YEAH, I DO KNOW WHAT I’M SAYING. Terrorism can be defeated; but you have to do it the hard way. Roll up your sleeves, America, because we have some heavy lifting to do.
Hence my statement at the beginning of my post. I’m just really mad.
For years, I’ve (and many others) have figured that no one is crazy enough to attack the U.S. Now, someone’s done it. What are we going to do? Sit around and twiddle our thumbs? If we do that, our credibility will be lowered, and more terrorists will think that they can get away with the same thing. No, we need to send a message that we will not be fucked with.
As I said in an email to my friend BunnyGirl this afternoon, the Pacifist Pagan in me is saying that al I can do is give blood, pray, and hope that they’ll be found and justice will be served.
But the human, the American who’s nation was so viciously attacked wants them dead. Dead, dead, dead. And not by lethal injection, either. Maybe an old-style burning at the stake, and absolutely NO merciful strangulation beforehand. Leave 'em awake. Conscious. Let them see the flames, and let them feel the burn.
Guin, you may be right. I don’t know. I don’t think anyone knows.
I do think that there MUST be retaliation for this. If not, we will have sent the message that the US is afraid to strike back at those who hurt us, and that we support a world in which someone can get away with this. We will also know that we have to live our lives in fear and that nobody will be willing to protect us. That is not acceptable.
We have a global reach, and it’s time to project some power. This is not me just being a chest-thumping Neanderthal, I TRULY believe the response should be to put B-52s over Kabul and Khartoum THIS VERY NIGHT. It doesn’t matter that the attack may not have originated from those points. The fact is, they use terrorism as a tool of national policy, and they should be made to pay an unacceptable price for it. Else, they get up in the morning and go to work: training more terrorists.
I’m with Bluesman on this one. There’s a general feeling/policy when it comes to these terrorist actions–Lockerbie, the embassy bombings in Africa, etc.–that they are matters for the criminal justice system. Fuck that. These are not matters for the criminal justice system. These are the actions of people who want to engage in this perverted form of “diplomacy” as players on the world’s political stage. Well, great: Let’s show them what it’s like to play in the major leagues. You want to be players? OK, let’s play.
Libya, Sudan, and Afghanistan are Disneyland for terrorists. They live there, they learn there, they train there, they hide there. The last time Libya pulled a stunt like this, Ronald Reagan, of whom I am no fan, quite rightly stuck several tons of ordnance up their asses. It’s time we took that stance again. The seats of the governments that engage in this activity should be bombed into parking lots. Any government found to be harboring the perpetrators of these activities, or any other terrorists, should be reduced to rubble.
Yes, and killed Qadaffi’s INFANT DAUGHTER in the process. Was that warranted? Was that right?
What if it turns out the attack was from some other place? Why should we punish more innocent people? People who are probably a lot like the ones killed today?