So… The Japanese Kamikaze attacks were then a sign of strength, right?
Suicide bombing is a desperation move. And you could make the case that using women is actually a sign of weakness, not strength. It could mean that the terrorists are having recruiting trouble, and are having to widen their pool of candidates. Similarly, the bombing of the hotel in Jordan wasn’t done by your typical no-name bombers recruited from the ranks of the disaffected, but by people of considerable weight and prestige from Zarqawi’s group. Another possible indication that it’s getting harder to scrounge up people who want to blow themselves up for the cause.
In any event, suicide bombing is the tactic of the weak. They use suicide attacks because they cannot hope to match the U.S. or even Iraqi military in a typical conflict. The U.S. military has not lost a single engagement in the middle east at anything above platoon level since the first Gulf war. But it’s the enemy who is scary and terrifying, huh?
Democrats wonder why they are perceived as weak on defense. This board is a perfect example why. Thread after thread calling for surrender, retreat, giving up. Howard Dean says it’s impossible to win.
Democrats are in a real box now. Because as Americans they should be hoping that the Iraq war is a success. But I’ll tell you, if it is, then people are going to remember that Democrats wanted to cut and run as soon as the going got tough, and it’s going to make them unelectable to national office as long as the U.S. faces security threats.
So, now they send women. Why should we be more scared now? All this will do will make them seem more and more foreign to the citizen on the street. It may be true that they are hurting, if they are sending women, now.
I got tired of people talking about this obscenity without telling me what it means. If anybody else was wondering, the Internet tells me it means something like “your sister’s pussy.”
I will watch with intererest and respect as you strap on your vest and go looking for an highly placed al-Q functionary to embrace while you blow yourself and him to hell.
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what it TRULY scary and terrifying is that in a war (v. al Q, not Iraq…) that we need badly to win, we have strategic geniuses like you applying WWII metrics to 21st century assymetrical conflicts.
You won’t even know when it’s time to “duck and cover”, but you WILL kiss your ass goodbye.
Victory is safely out of your reach, General.
May I recommend a brief bit of reading that is required for your fellow staff level officers, Martin Van Creveld’s recent analysls:
Instead of thumping your ignorant republican chest, try inflating the spherical chamber just above and look therein for a scrap of functioning illumination.
The significance, if any, of the new practice (see newsweek for further anaysis) of women suicide bombers in the Iraq conflict.
I say that sacrificing your breeding stock is fundamentally counterintuitive from an evolutionary biology standpoint, and that it therefore demonstrates an aggravated level of alienation that ought to give us pause–If we are making enemies so fierce that they will fuck off their own pussy, they are REALLY PISSED
Blowing yourself up can’t be any less counterintuitive from that standpoint. There is no stronger impulse than self-preservation. But it’s THIS that convinces you they’re really pissed off?
As several other posters noted, suicide bombers are mere grunts, the very bottom of the terrorist food chain. The actual terrorists are the ones who recruit them, motivate them, arm them and select their targets. The bombers themselves are nothing more than guided munitions.
Let me just add that as a former and occasional soldiers, nothing is more contemptable to me than a commander who’ll send his troops out to certain death, while he sits safely at home.
What YOU don’t understand is that by doing away with their survival instincts these people are mutilating, even crippling themselves. They’re making themselves weaker. It’s like you’re saying that you have the willpower to poke out both your eyes with a sharp stick. Well, great. Now you’re both strong willed AND blind. Big whoop.
How am I supposed to respect human beings who decide to make themselves less than human?
Now, it’s saying that you have the willpower to poke out YOUR ENEMIES eye with a stick at the cost of your own eyes. Yeah everyone’s blind, but how bad do you want to win?
The basic mindset I seem to hear from a lot of ex-military types is “We’re bigger, stronger and better trained!! We kick their ass in every fight!” That kind of misses the point. Terrorists and insurgents won’t stand and fight you in the way you want to fight. You may consider it cowardly and unAmerican but it works. Every car bomb or suicide attack frustrates the enemy.
When you’re as committed as these people are, do you really think they’re going to stop and think “Hmm. Actually, if we use women suicide bombers, we won’t be able to reproduce. Let’s not, eh?” That’s just…well, stupid.
“Sacrificing your breeding stock”? Because, of course, the women themselves don’t want to blow themselves up, but are being forced to. Yes, I agree that it’s probable that some people are forced or brainwashed into doing this kind of thing - but why can’t women as well as men be as committed to the cause? Men who blow themselves up are all evil, disgusting terrorists, but the women are just confused and forced, and don’t really want to do it? I think not. Both are likely to be as committed and certain about doing what they do.
No, it’s like poking out both your eyes with a sharp stick and then doing the same to dozens of your enemy. They’re sacrificing themselves so that their comrades will succeed - it’s like leaping on a hand grenade to save your friends, only offensive - having the hand grenade strapped to you as you run towards the enemy, to save your friends. That’s the mentality here - I must do this, to help my ideals, my allies, my culture from the despicable West.
Ok…this is just silly (of course, its alaric so… ). You would have a point here (perhaps) if they were using so many women that it was seriously cutting into their birth/death statistics. But how many women do you think have been suicide bombers here? How many do you expect in the future? It would take 100’s of thousand, perhaps millions to seriously be ‘sacrificing your breeding stock’ man. To put it harshly: I doubt even if you factor in all the civilian women both we AND the insurgent kill PLUS the female suicide bombers that we are even making a dent in their population growth statistics.
). You would have a point here (perhaps) if they were using so many women that it was seriously cutting into their birth/death statistics. But how many women do you think have been suicide bombers here? How many do you expect in the future? It would take 100’s of thousand, perhaps millions to seriously be ‘sacrificing your breeding stock’ man. To put it harshly: I doubt even if you factor in all the civilian women both we AND the insurgent kill PLUS the female suicide bombers that we are even making a dent in their population growth statistics.