posted 09-13-2001 17:51            

Tuesday morning, a deliberate attack was made on the safety and welfare of the American people. The only valid military casualty was later revealed to be a secondary target, or target of opportunity - The presidential mansion and Air Force One are alleged to be the real targets of the pentagon plane. While one can easily argue that the president is a valid military target, this wasn't a bona fide military operation. The president was a terror target.

parallel: Persons unknown set fire to your home, and kill several of your family members.

The United States finds itself in a new situation now: People with literally NOTHING to lose have declared war on us, whereas we have a LOT to lose. Our best... well, ONLY course of action is to unleash our FORMIDABLE detective and forensics ability to find out exactly who did this, and how it was done.

parallel: The local police investigate the attack on your home and look for leads.

After we find out who did it... and make no mistake, we WILL find out, we will then be in a position to bring to bear the might of our armed forces. Why, you ask? How can we NOT? Either we protect our own, or we give up right now. When we find out a) who did it, b) how they did it, and c) who harbored / helped them do it, we need to WIPE THEM FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH.

Right now the facts point to Osama Bin Laden, who is frequently a guest of the Talaban goverment of Afgahnistan... those stalwart paragons of human rights and sexual equality.

I think it's fairly easy to say that Bin Laden and the Talaban constitute a clear and present danger to the security of these United States.

fact: Osama Bin Laden has been linked to numerous terrorist acts against the US. (Embassy bombings, USS Cole, First WTC bombing.)

fact: The Talaban provides refuge and hiding for him.

fact: If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

parallel: The police find out who the arsonist is who burned down your house, and who killed your family. Furthermore, they find that another group of people frequently harbor them.

What do we do then? Mobilize. We do not launch a couple of rockets at a suspected training camp in some scruffy patch of desert, like Clinton did. We respond with extreme prejudice to a verified and real threat to our national security. We need to unleash the combined might of our armed forces, and send a clear statement that reads thusly:

"Fuck with us, and we're coming for your wives and children. Quid pro quo, motherfuckers."

parallel: Arrests are made, cases are built, and the criminal justice system passes sentence.

National pride and patriotic fervor went out of style back in the 50's and 60's, but I've always loved my country, and I've always considered myself a patriot. Along those lines, I say this with utter calm and clarity. If it's announced that there will be a draft, or a large mobilization, I am going to enlist. Others may not agree, but that's your decision. Personally, I firmly believe in the old adage 'the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.' I'll stand my watch - how can I not after the events of the past few days?

-3

edited to fix fux0r3d UBBcode.

posted 09-13-2001 18:38            

quote:

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Originally posted by InThrees:
"Fuck with us, and we're coming for your wives and children. Quid pro quo, motherfuckers."

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I dunno about the "wives and children" part, but I would definitely agree with the statement that saturation bombing is not the correct response. In addition to unacceptably high levels of civilian target damage, saturation bombing alone produces STARTLINGLY little in the way of actually getting rid of the black-hats that are the cause of the problem: they're hiding in bunkers. It's HARD to hurt a target in a hardened bunker.

Even though it means considerably more loss of American soldiers' lives, I for one think that the correct response to a Taliban which refuses to produce Bin Laden - assuming we do in fact discover that he is the one responsible - is a serious oldskool ground-and-pound. That's right, major ground assault with actual troops.

War is thousands of years old and technology has advanced unimaginably, but a truism older than Sun Tzu is still true - "the only way to take and hold a position is by use of infantry."

posted 09-13-2001 20:10            

quote:

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Originally posted by InThrees:
Personally, I firmly believe in the old adage 'the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.' I'll stand my watch - how can I not after the events of the past few days?

---

You know, I had a really surreal conversation with my father last night about this very same thing. He told me when he was graduating high school that the draft for 'Nam was still going on, and he was scared shitless. But that he would have gone, if called, because it was his duty. This is his land, and if it called him, he'd be there.

What made it even more poignant was that his father, and my mother's father, were both in WWII --- my mom's father actually lied about his age to join up. And my dad, last night, said, "If I'd have been called up, and had run away to Canada like a coward, how could I look any veteran in the eye? How could I look my father in the eye?"

I know how he feels. I could never look at my grandfather again if I ran away. And after Tuesday, I know I will never look at him the same way --- right now, for the first time in my life, I'm understanding how young men lined up to enlist after Pearl Harbor. Never thought of myself, a nearly-graduated English major, fighting in a war, but if there ever was a reason for me to be called, this is it, and I'd be there.

*edited because I forgot an "I"*
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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

posted 09-14-2001 06:53           

Okay.. parallel

You shoot at a cop and miss
You shoot at a cop and hit

Does the second make you any less guilty?

posted 09-15-2001 10:22            

And we learned from our mistakes, I hope. The military leadership in the late 60's and early 70's was severely lacking, as well as the resolve to actually DO the things needed to win the war.

Now that American civilians died on American soil due to an unprovoked attack, I think resolve won't even be an issue. The chokehold we will eventually place on the perpetrator's nest will be so tight, there won't be any parallel between this war and any past conflicts we've participated in.