"War is hell"- General Sherman
"There are no good wars, only necessay and unecessary ones" -R. W. Foster
I have to speak out on the whole war on terror debate. This is not to discuss whether we could have or should have conducted foreign policy differently 20-30 or even 50 years ago. We cannot change the past, and many things that were done in decades gone by may seem underhanded to us today, but were quite progressive in their times. trying to play couls-woulda-shoulda is counter productive, and wastes time and energy that could be devoted to answering the question of "What do we need to do now?"
First, lets examine what our enemies beleive. If they kill an infidel, their place in heaven is assured, because they are expected to spread Islam throughout the world until Islam is all that remains. (People think Christianity is extreme, but a True Christian cannot kill someone who refuses to beleive in Christ, because that person MAY come to change their mind one day, and killing them deprives them that chance at salvation!) Notice I said TRUE Christians. I also did NOT say that there was not a case for self sefence (although by martyrdom, one can preserve the bad actors chance at salvation) or defending innocents against threats. I have seen very few Christians truly distance themselve from abortion clinic bombings, and even fewer Muslims decry acts of terror. I see Muslims who denounce the 9/11 attacks and then turn around and hold telethons to raise money to support the families of suicide bobmers in Isreal, so I don't know how sincere there denouncements are. Suffice it to say that at the very minimum, the Wahabi extremests are dedicated to wiping out every last man woman and child who refuses to convert to Islam! They are not jealous of our freedom, they don't want to be free to view porn, drink alcohol, or worship any God other than Allah.
What do we beleive? That we can solve any conflicts by opening channels of communication, and talking through our differences and that all people should be llowed to speak out as they wish, worship (or not) as they wish, and that all people are basically good. We are civilized people who would rather do without than see the citizens of another country ravaged by war, much less see our sons, daughters and loved ones go away to return in body bags.
The tactics of the enemy- They utilize guerilla warfare, attack "soft" (undefended) targets, target innocent civilians to attain shock value, attack using kamikaze tactics because most defences rely on the attacker having SOME form of self-preservation instinct. The Palestinians (one of the longest lived groups spawning terrorists) lobbied for inclusion in peace talks with Israel, until they were included, despite never acknowledging Israels right to simply exist. In 1999, the Israeli government conceded to 95% of the Palestinian demands, and Yasser Arafat walked away from the negotiations! This illustrates the TOTAL lack of willingness to compromise by the other side, they don't want peace, they want "all or nothing" they will negotiate, accept what you give up, and then continue their attacks until they get the rest. DO NOT make the mistake of thinking these people will ever negotiate in good faith! Remember the Muslims who died in the WTC and Pentagon Bombings? The enemy has no qualms about killing some of their own to get us! They beleive that the collateral casualties are either going to heaven with the martyrs, or were not true beleivers for dealing with infidels. They beleive that there are no borders to Islam, and they will operate wherever and whenever they can to attack the "infidels"
Our tactics- We have spent millions developing weapons to minimize or eliminate collateral damage. We can target one building in a block and do limited damage to the surrounding structures. We hesitate to attack enemy personnel because they hide in religeous shrines that we don't want to destroy for risk of offending others. We perform self-flagellation over any reports of maltreatment of our enemies. We try to end a conflict with the minimum casualties on either side.
We beleive that our emenies are simply jealous of our freedom. We try not to involve ant nations that have not directly provoked us.
Are you starting to see some serious problems? We are talking about trying to reason with people who will not reason with us. Agree to dissagree with people who will not tolerate dissent. To ostricize those who want to expunge us.
Should we have gone into Iraq before we settled Afghanistan? Let me ask you, in a fist fight, do you ignore your opponents left hand until you stop him from throwing rights at you? This is more akin to ignoring right jabs, hooks, and anything from the left, until you stop the right crosses! the lefts would be the terrorist attacks in Isreal! It is another head of the SAME beast! We have to stop viewing diffferent groups of Muslim extremists as separate entities, because many Al Queada operative have close and direct ties to other organizations. Think of labor unions (no, I'm not equating unions with terrorists, just the organizational structure) The IBEW (electricians) may not go on strike, but the Teamsters do. They are both part of the same AFL-CIO! Al Queda may not be the PLO, but you can bet they have ties! In spite of what the 911 Commision says, I can't beleive that the Iraqis had a training facility with an airliner fuselage in it, that defectors said was NOT used for training internal security forces, but outsiders who were kept away from troops stationed at that base, for no reason that was not detrimental to us. By going into Iraq, we didn't cease what we were doing in Afghanistan, but just started dodging the hooks in addition to the jabs. Now we need to start thinking about those lefts!
