So, what, we look for the little name tag over his pocket?
I’m not sure what you mean. Are you saying we have no way of knowing who any of the higher ups are? We just captured one last week, and I don’t think he was wearing a name tag.
Same difference. Whatever he knew is compromised, react accordingly. It’s what you would do, isn’t it?
With all due respect, that is an absurd over-simplification. He could name names, locations, plans. And you can’t take a nose count every day, especially if you are trying to maintain isolated cells. Note that we didn’t announce the capture of that guy for at least several days.
But even if you were correct, there would be a lot of value in making AQ re-writer their entire playbook every month or so. Make them scrap all the old plans, relocated everyone, etc. Sounds like an excellent plan to me.
‘Lucky accident’ led to arrest of Taliban No. 2
Stop killing terrorists while we wait and pray for another lucky accident? That sounds like an iffier approach than just killing them as we find them.
It’s not as if the torture these Republicans are advocating the US continue using on these guys has ever been shown to be effective. David Petreaus said it nicely today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/world/asia/22petraeus.html
Exactly. Morality aside–and it’s a telling sign when we can’t stop right there in an argument–our use of torture is al-Qaeda’s single greatest recruiting tool. Bin Laden must have thought Abu Ghraib a gift from Allah, as it was the perfect hat trick of violence, sexual depravity, and cultural oppression.
Where did I say we should “Stop killing terrorists while we wait and pray for another lucky accident”?
Well, did we kill that number two which lucky accident brought to us? I thought not. Yup, no morons in this administration. There’s no need for kibbitzing, especially from those same Republicans who abandoned Afghanistan in a vain search for glory in Iraq. Obama is working to clean up their mess, and it’s going to be hard in a way GWB never experienced. The pubs need to STFU and let him do this job.
The idea that you can kill the leaders and end terrorism is absurd. If one of our generals get killed ,we trot out a new one. Same for them. There are plenty of people who would step up. I get so sick of hearing we killed the number 2 leader. No. 3 is waiting for his chance. No 4 is watching eagerly. Osama may have been dead for a long time. It does not matter. The Taliban fights on. This is the military wet dream. a war that lasts forever and is nearly impossible to lose. They can always say they kept America from being attacked, whether they did or not. Who would know?
Obama is not helping. He is just coontiniuing a process that will not fix a thing.
I think the problem with the right is that seem to think that Rambo was a documentary.
As for circle jerks - I love Jamaican food.
When it comes to the Taliban, the current idea is to keep killing enough leaders so that the ones who replace them 1) are less competent, experienced and knowledgeable in military planning than their predecessors and 2) are more willing to come to terms.
Believe it or not, most of the military - particularly the generals - aren’t a bunch of male teenage war-gamers who are jonesing for more 'splosions. They understand the U.S. military is over-stretched right now. By far, the military doesn’t love war, they just love preparing for war. The Cold War (at least the European, Korean, and Japanese theaters) was a perfect example. Little to no fighting and yet buckets of money thrown their way.
Afghan police say Tora Bora commander killed
I think we can all agree that the Taliban pulled a real boner here. Instead of just killing the guy they should have captured him, and tortured him in order to obtain actionable intelligence. What a bunch of bone-heads! Their foolish death-strategery will never work. All they are doing is assuring their own destruction. Their acts make a travesty of good armchair war-fighting skillz. :dubious:
Can anybody who agrees with this please offer a cite showing that any useful information has ever been extracted from a captured terrorist?
I think we should make like the Joker and show that we can pull off bigger boners than the Taliban ever imagined!
I think that’s an unreasonable request, as any such information isn’t going to be released to the public, at least not for some time. The Bush administration claimed they got useful info from KSM, and the Obama information is claiming we’re getting all sorts of info from the Underwear Bomber. But I don’t think we know what that info is, so we have to take their word(s) for it. Unless you think both Bush and Obama are lying… which may very well be the case if they want the other terrorists to think we’re getting info even if we didn’t.
We do not have to take the word of a former Bush speechwriter, who is probably angling for a job at the presidential library, for it.
If they want their sniping to be taken seriously, Republicans should employ a sniper with a made reputation, such as Dick Cheney.
This “the former minor image polisher says…” stuff is really penny-ante.
Sadly, if we’d killed two more of their leaders, Al Haig would have been in charge. Too late now…
It was Fritz Kraemer in charge anyway. Just few knew it.
Who gives a shit? They have been blaming us since before I was born. Death to America! and all that.
As soon as they start looking at their own wretched countries/government and maybe see that all of their woes aren’t because of Amerika the better. In the mean time, bomb the crap out of them.
As for two Republicans bleating about this? OMFG the world is surely coming to an end.
I’m not following you. It wasn’t only a former Bush speech writer who said we got info from KSM. Cheney is on record, too, as well as other former administration officials.
At any rate, forget about Bush altogether since too many people on this MB can discuss anything Bush related rationally. Obama’s administration is claiming we are getting valuable info from the Underwear Bomber. That answer’s that poster’s question w/o reference to Bush.