Cato wrote:


I think we are maybe not talking about the same thing exactly. What
I am talking about is that in this war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the
enemy has no feelings about innocent civilians. They will not hesitate
to target innocent people and erase them from this world.

That's right...

I would like
to think that we do not intentionally target civilian non-combatants.

Generally, that's true...

If we did, then we would be just as much murderous animals as the
enemy that we fight.

....and I agree...

(( Only if some country fired nukes at our cities, or we had
conclusive evidence that they about to fire them at us, ( example,
North Korea) would I agree to taking out the country with massive
retaliation on their cities.))

But that's not what I'm talking about.

The Powell Doctrine was pretty clear: Go in with overwhelming force,
have a clear definition of the job from beginning to end, do the job
with overwhelming military force, and get out.

We went in on the cheap, with no reasonable answer to how to deal with
the aftermath of taking the Iraqi government out, and neglected since
then the escalating problems.

We have also treated, for example, al Sadr to continue to function as
a corrosive influence over there. A sniper team could have taken him
out and I think we would have been better off with him as a potential
martyr than as an active cancer.

But, because he is a self-described "cleric" (as opposed to his
father, who really was an expert on Islam), and hid in a mosque, we
didn't touch him. He had no problem with taking us out.

That is what I am talking about. Doing the best we can to take
out the enemy, and leave the civilians unharmed as best we can. Sure
there will be times were we fall down on that effort and some
civilians will be killed accidentally, but I would like to think that
we do our outmost to keep those innocent deaths to an absolute
minimum.
Cato

What I read you talking about is that they don't fight fair. War
isn't about fair, war is about winning control through violence.
That's why we souldn't play with it, but treat it as soberly and
seriously, something our American administration hasn't been willing
to do.

Screw fair. They do, and we should. I'm not talking about paving
over the surface of Iraq and killing everyone, but we sure as hell
shouldn't be afraid to fight the insurgents, al-Quida, the Taliban,
etc on the grounds that they choose to hide from us.


--
Eric F. Richards

"Don't destroy the Earth! That's where I keep all of my stuff!"
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