# Should the U.S. attack Hamas now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 24, 2004, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059 "2004-03-24T02:44:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Plan\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Plan\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plan_B)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/1 "2004-03-24T02:44:28Z")
Hamas has made it clear that they intend to attack the U.S. Right now the administration is being raked over the coals for their failure to do something to prevent 9/11. Should we attack Hamas now to keep them from carrying out their threats? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/2 "2004-03-24T02:46:40Z")
Are you claiming a link between Hamas and 9/11? ---
**Author:** ![Plan\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Plan\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plan_B)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/3 "2004-03-24T03:17:12Z")
Uh…no, not in this post I don’t think I did. My point is simply that there was a terrorist attack on 9/11 for which the adminstration is being sharply criticized, in that they did not prevent it. Now, a group comes along (which may or may not not be connected to 9/11 - I honestly hadn’t thought about it while posting) and threatens to kill American civilians. The question comes up: Should we wait for them to strike (and possibly kill me or my children) or annihilate them now? I’m not sure what part of my post made you wonder whther I saw them as linked to 9/11. I’m relatively new to this board but I believe that this question has been dealt with on this board ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/4 "2004-03-24T03:17:34Z")
I’m hoping Plan A was better. I’m almost too anxious to ask, though, what it might be; was it perhaps to just let everyone attack everyone else and just have a great big ‘attack’ all at once ? Sure as hell would save us time. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/5 "2004-03-24T03:22:55Z")
I have to think that Hamas is just blustering. I don’t think their leadership is stupid enough to openly attack the United States. They don’t want that kind of heat. The U.S. should do nothing against Hamas unless Hamas acts first. Going after Hamas no would cause the Middle East to erupt in flames. Hamas and Hezbollah have huge popular support in the Middle East - much more so than Bin Laden. This assassination of the Hamas leader is a very dangerous development. Hamas and Hezbollah have escaped the scrutiny of the U.S. so far because, while they are terrorist organizations they are regional terrorists who so far have not threatened the U.S. civilian population. If that changes and they start attacking Americans with the same ferver that they attack Israelis with, the U.S. response will be just as severe as Israel’s, if not more so. And Hezbollah and Hamas are BIG terrorist organizations. Hezbollah makes al-Qaida look small-time. And of course, Hezbollah has the direct backing of Iran and Syria. Fighting either of these organizations would also have severe consequences in Iraq. There were demonstrations in support of Hamas in Iraq today. So far, the populace of Iraq has rejected the insurgency that is going on there - support for the attacks is barely above double digits. If the U.S. goes after Hamas or Hezbollah, that could change overnight. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/6 "2004-03-24T04:10:27Z")
If we go after Hamas on the basis of their shocked blustering, we’ll be surrendering the conduct of American foreign policy to Ariel Sharon. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/7 "2004-03-24T04:12:56Z")
The trouble with “let’s attack” is that it is addictive. Even before all else fails; Kill the Bastards. This is like putting Bactine on syphilis chancers without doing anything about the underlying cause. Something has to be done about the Israeli-Arab thing before any of the terrorism can be ended. I don’t know what that would be but we have people in the government who get the big bucks to work on such things and they haven’t figured it out either. But no, no attacks. One preemptive and “preventive” (ha, ha) war at a time is more than enough. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/8 "2004-03-24T05:31:57Z")
Just wondering…How would the US attack the Hamas? Airstrikes in Israeli territory? Doesn’t seem remotely possible to me. ---
**Author:** ![Zagadka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zagadka/32/7272_2.png) [@Zagadka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagadka)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/9 "2004-03-24T05:34:29Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Just wondering…How would the US attack the Hamas? Airstrikes in Israeli territory? Doesn’t seem remotely possible to me. You think Israel would strenuously object to letting America bomb the living fark out of them? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/10 "2004-03-24T06:00:42Z")
I think **Plan B** raises an important point. All those castigating either the Clinton or the Bush administration for lack of action against al Qaeda should understand the clarity of 20/20 hindsight in light of this recent declaration against the US by HAMAS. If HAMAS does take some action against the US, I’m sure there will be someone claiming that the goverment ignored the warning. I’m not advocating an attack against HAMAS. Just reminding everyone that the pre-9/11 view of al Qaeda might not have been so different. ---
**Author:** ![Zagadka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zagadka/32/7272_2.png) [@Zagadka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagadka)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/11 "2004-03-24T06:07:32Z")
Slight difference - AQ has attacked us before. Several times. They _were_ a very real threat before 9/11. I still remember all the talk about Osama when the embassies were hit in Africa, and I thought, this guy is going to be trouble. I think Clinton fired some cruise missiles blindly and called it a day. The other real threat is the US acting like a hyperactive cat on meth whenever someone looks at us the wrong way. If we keep doing that, we look even worse and create more problems than ignoring attacks altogether. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/12 "2004-03-24T06:20:41Z")
I agree–it would be hard to strike at Hamas without hitting bystanders, and even though a lot of people mistakenly think that Israel attacks only with American backing, I think American helos doing the actual attack wouldn’t help with our PR. The only way I see is to keep them and their sympathizers out of the country. Everyone who enters from a Middle Eastern country gets the Israeli-style custom treatment. This’ll inconvenience a lot of innocent people, but now the stakes are too high. I don’t want to be blown to bits because my route went through Grand Central for a fight I have no dog in and am even finding increasingly frustrating to think about; I’m reaching the ‘a pox on both yer houses!’ stage, which is sad because I’ve always wanted justice for both sides. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/13 "2004-03-24T14:57:26Z")
“The new Hamas leader in Gaza said on Wednesday the group had no plans to attack American targets, pulling back from retaliatory threats by the group’s armed wing after Israel’s assassination of the Hamas founder.” [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=4&u=/ap/20040324/ap\_on\_re\_mi\_ea/israel\_palestinians\_25](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=4&u=/ap/20040324/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians_25) ---
**Author:** ![Aldebaran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Aldebaran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aldebaran)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/14 "2004-03-24T15:01:05Z")
Since I have no interest at all in participating in threads like this, I shall for once give you people a link to a website. > **[Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera](https://www.aljazeera.com/)** > > News, analysis from the Middle East & worldwide, multimedia & interactives, opinions, documentaries, podcasts, long reads and broadcast schedule. Hamas: US threat claim is cynical diversion By Natasha Tynes > [@](#): > > …For al-Rantisi, the American statements are “provocative”. “This shows the idiocy of the American mentality that does not understand how Hamas thinks or plans,” he said… > …There is no member of the Hamas leadership that made such a statement. Our policy can not be changed overnight like this, only through a shura (democratic council) decision. > “This did not happen and will not happen in the future – I assure you.”… > > …Usama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Lebanon, also rubbished the allegations. “This is a clear American lie to cover up the US involvement as it gave the green light for the assassination of Shaikh Yasin,” Hamdan told [Aljazeera.net](http://Aljazeera.net)… > > …Usama Hamdan: Hamas representative in Lebanon > > “The Americans are trying to create an illusion that they are under threat and are targeted in order to create an official Arab reaction against the public outcry that took place in the streets of the Arab world.”… Enjoy the experience of getting less one sided informed and have once again the machinations of the US government exposed. Salaam. A ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/15 "2004-03-24T15:19:11Z")
> [@Zagadka](#): > > You think Israel would strenuously object to letting America bomb the living fark out of them? Absolutely. It’s our turf. We stayed out of Iraq - the U.S. should stay out of Gaza. Besides, it’s not as if they can do anything we haven’t already tried. Israeli bombs are jusy as accurate as American bombs ---
**Author:** ![Genghis\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/45deac/32.png) [@Genghis\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Genghis_Bob)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/16 "2004-03-24T16:39:33Z")
> [@Aldebaran](#): > > . . . Enjoy the experience of getting less one sided informed and have once again the machinations of the US government exposed. . . Gosh, I’m sure glad we got the real straight dope from Hamas. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Aldebaran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Aldebaran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aldebaran)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/17 "2004-03-24T17:08:03Z")
r.dansk Congratulations for being the first to come up with the reaction I expected. So you claim that the US government - always so clear-voyant and so incredible “informed” and unbelievable “honest” in sharing with the rest of the world their “information” - knows better what the Hamas leadership said then the Hamas leadership itself. Oh well… If people really want to believe that others know better what people say then the people themselves… Nothing can stop them living that illusion. I whish you all the luck you are going to need when you finally wake up (if ever) and discover the reality of one and an other. Salaam. A ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/18 "2004-03-24T18:17:01Z")
**Aldebaran** , From what I have been able to gather of your background, I realize that this is probably a hot-button issue with you. Never the less, I must ask if you are reading the same thread that I have been? It seems to me that the vast majority of the folks participating in this thread (all?) are stating that a preemptive attack is fundamentally a bad idea. Moreover, they are giving a literal mosaic of reasons why this is so. I don’t really know you, but it seems to me that you would view this as a good thing. Your post, however, seems to indicate that you are more interested in, I don’t know, portraying Americans as ill informed rubes or something. What are you trying to accomplish here? ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/19 "2004-03-24T19:16:17Z")
Don’t know what the US could do that Israel is not already doing. Freezing all financial assets of both the military as well as the so-called political branch of Hamas is of course a good place to start. I believe the EU at some time supported some part of Hamas, I hope that’s all past us now. In any case calling for attacks on America (and other Western nations) is nothing new for Hamas. A year ago Yassin (now fortunately dead) called for Jihad on all hate-drenched Western nations. > [@](#): > > “Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin called on the Islamic nation “to strike at Western interests everywhere if Iraq is conquered.” Yassin continued, “The hate-drenched West, headed by America, declared today a crusade on the [Islamic] nation and on the Muslim belief when it gathered to strike Iraq.” Sheikh Yassin called on the Iraqi people to join ranks under the banner of Jihad, and demanded that Iraq “open its borders to all Muslims across the world so that they can play their part in the defensive battle of the [Islamic] nation.” And other drivel from Hamas [here:](http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP47903) Further in the beginning of this month (before Yassins was killed). Hamas decided to use British suicide bombers for the explicit purpose of bringing their terror campaign up on a “global level of the Islamic world”. [Here](http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/402530.html) So, I’m sorry **Aldebaran** , but I can’t see how hearing it from the horse’s mouth is being insuffereable one sided, or indeed how Al Jazeera can be any more impartial than taking Hamas on their word. - Rune p.s. What the heck is that thing about 700 naked girls in Sidney, and why the hell hasn’t nobody told me anything about that?! ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059/20 "2004-03-24T19:24:30Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > I think **Plan B** raises an important point. > > All those castigating either the Clinton or the Bush administration for lack of action against al Qaeda should understand the clarity of 20/20 hindsight in light of this recent declaration against the US by HAMAS. I think it’s very fair to criticize the current and previous administration as well as the American people for ignoring Al Queda for as long as they did. The World Trade Center, the USS Cole, and several embassy bombings were all connected to them prior to 9/11. I think it would be stupid to ignore the threats of a large and motivated organization like Hamas. Marc [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-u-s-attack-hamas-now/236059.md?page=2)