Why wait to determine WHICH terrorist organization was responsible? Public opinion would probably support acting against ALL organizations that are KNOWN to use or advocate terrorism. bin Laden, IRA, Red Brigade, whoever. Decimate their ranks. Then we’ll have more time to build up an effective defense while they’re rebuilding.
That’s my idea.
And it’s a good one. I would generally agree that itnernational terrorist organizations should be targeted for extermination.
However, this is being done in self-defense, and if you’re defending yourself the first guy you should kill is the one hitting you right now. Whoever committed these hideous acts is a real, massive threat right now, so it’s only logical they be the prime targets right now.
There are really two sorts of terrorists. (Probably more, come to think of it.)
You’ve got the ones with some sort of well-defined political agenda or goal - like, say, the the IRA. Not, perhaps, a goal you’d agree with, but nonetheless these are people with whom a deal might eventually be struck with a reasonable expectation that they’ll stick to it. Which is, looking from a practical point of view, the easiest way of minimizing the risk and suffering, and I guess that’s the point of the exercise. “Yaw, yaw is better than war, war” as a great statesman once said.
OTOH you have your bin Laden or RAF types, who hates the west/capitalism/etc. and to whom the only acceptable goal is that we cease to exist.
Obviously, there are no deals to be struck here. These are the guys that the west will have to contain or take out. Whether it be through confiscation of their assets (why can’t we get at their money ?), by locking them up, by winning the hearts and minds of their followers, by denying them sanctuaries or by judicious application of a scope-sighted rifle. Don’t just go decimating ranks, they’ve got manpower enough. Go for the leaders and the bank accounts and make it impossible for their organizations to work. The leaders do not seem to be all that crazy about martyrdom themselves, less so if their organizations do not survive.
S. Norman
Okay, it really is a great idea, but the problem with that is, there’s no way to determine who’s with who. If you think about it, its an idea. How can you extirminate an idea? You can’t, ideas can go anywhere, travel with anyone. Also, once one organization is erradicated, another one will just pop right up in its place. My point;
You can’t kill all followers of a certain ideology. One is born every minute, and you can’t track every single one. There’s always someone who will actually believe that terroristic ways are good. Ideas live forever.
I think a lot of other people from Western countries other than America will also read this OP and just shake their heads like I did. It’s attitudes like these that caused the terrorists to do what they did. It’s not because America is some shining beacon of democracy. It’s not because America represents freedom and pluralism. It’s none of that. It’s because the American goverment does so many shitty things around the world.
Can’t you see that simply killing those who disagree with you is what the terrorists do? Who is going to define who the terrorists are? The American State Department? Defense? Please don’t let it be Bush. The Israelis use force (terrifying force) to achieve their goals. Are they terrorists to be decimated? Or is it only enemies of America you would decimate? Pre-Gulf War, Saddam was a buddy that America helped to be as bad as what he is. Should he have been decimated even then?
This was a terrible thing to happen to so many innocent people. And as generalisations go, Americans are among the friendlier and most easy going people I’ve ever met. It is just such an awful pity that such a cool, easygoing people have such a rapacious and vile government. Americans, I have found, are incredibly insulated from the foreigh affairs actions of their goverment. I’ve met Americans in Turkey who were appalled at what was happening to kids in Iraq. I just couldn’t get over how this was news to these guys. More Iraqi kids die of preventable diseases like malnutrition than will ever be affected by what those bastards did to the WTC. The sanctions imposed by America (and it is totally driven from Washington, the UK and others just go along) don’t do squat to Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction plans. But they are killing Arab kids in droves.
Non-combatants have been the main victims of wars since at least WWI. Osama’s strike at America killed only innocents and hardened resolve against his cause. Similarly, American strikes at terrorist targets will kill mainly innocents and just provide millions more recruits for him. From the Philipines to Egypt, millions of boys and young men will seek to regain some dignity and purpose by turning to violent fundamentalism.
Guns, tanks and aircraft are way cool. And this is evidence that I’ve been brought up on a steady diet of Hollywood. It is easy to give into your rightful desire for vengeance and easier still to devise ways to achieve vengeance by these means. However, I can still discern that they aren’t the answer and ultimately, the guns and tanks should remain in Hollywood.
Instead of having your government actually supplying Iran, Iraq and the mujahadeen with sophisticated weapons and techniques, it should have been working to remove the power base of the guys who have turned out to be your enemies. When you install cruel and oppressive regimes like the Shah of Iran, the result is a tortured, resentful, cruel and oppressive fundamentalism as espoused by Khomeini. Bomb Cambodia, you get the Khmer Rouge (who America sided with because they were against the Vietnamese).
I’m not saying America deserved this. I’m saying nobody deserved this but it is what has been happening in the third world for years and only now makes headlines because the victims are American.
I hope God continues to bless America, especially at this terrible hour. I just hope he doesn’t further curse the Arab world when America looks for payback.*
Well put.
What about the folks of the terrorists? Why not call them & ask them to keep their kids home?
Most of those terrorists were about 33, so their folks would be around 55, they would just make some more. Actually were talking about this kinda on tv this am.
Nobody kills anybody in IMHO.
Lockdown.