grumbles Sorry about the double post folks. I was getting gateway timeouts and on first glance it hadn’t seemed to have gotten throguh.
inkblot
Oh, certainly, Scylla, I couldn’t agree with you more.
I was simply trying to explain what I took to be obfusciatrist’s point of view a little bit as I share it to some extent and he seems to be temporarily unavailable.
On a side note, I would like to say that I commend the efforts the U.S. is making to preserve civilian life in Afghanistan.
Scylla remind me never to debate you. 
I must say you’ve done an excellent job here.
Pennylane:
It’s a pleasure discussing this with you as well.
In what other areas do you side with Obfusciatrist’s arguments and why?
Scylla, I agree with obfusciatrist that all reasonable measures be taken to avoid civilian deaths. And that some of Zenster’s propositions have not been worth debating. Keeping in mind that it is not Afghanistan which attacked America, but a group of terrorists whom the non-democratically-elected Afghani government refuses to hand over, we all agree that Afghani civilians are not to blame here. Thankfully, with the current level of technology available in the U.S. it is possible to specifically target military bases and Taliban headquarters without putting American soldiers in harm’s way (any more than they would naturally be during a war). I believe that in most circumstances the U.S. is capable of minimising civilian casualties without endangering American soldiers or jeopardising U.S. goals. So I can’t really imagine many realistic scenarios in which Zenster’s more radical suggestions would be justified or inevitable. I also share obfusciatrist’s idealistic view that the swift conclusion of a war may not necessarily justify the means by which it is achieved. Of course, all this is my personal point of view; I don’t think I’m capable of dictating what is ethical or justifiable in war and what is not. Perhaps those who feel capable of doing that should join the thread which InkBlot created for that purpose.
What you say makes sense to me.
Heh, I leave for a month of holiday and my first ever pit thread turns into sophistry-drenched great debate material. Go figure.
I post again to remind everyone that the objective of this thread was not to wring hands over which brutal necessities are required by conflict, but to highlight the stupidity of posting emphatically about that which one does not know or understand. Opinion is no substitute for knowledge.
I trust that Zenster and those who persist in making his same mistakes understood the point, eventually. Acknowledgement of one’s mistakes is a valuable part of the learning process; obtuse insistence on outrageously incorrect assertions is merely stupidity.
Oh yes. Thank God you showed up to save the day. Thank God you saw fit to bump this again.
And thank god you replied Scylla, the volumes of apologetic and garbled side-stepping you dropped earlier just wasn’t quite enough to break the camel’s back…