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Originally Posted by spazz
Well the city would obviously be chosen intelligently, we would not pick it out of a hat. If I had to do it, I would choose a city where the majority of terrorists and islamic fundamentalist live. But really any city where you could get the point across. It would have two effects: It would make the citizens more opt to fight against these terrorists and it would make these terrorists less responsive because now we have put a price to pay on the table. The price is more then any of them could afford.
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One problem I see is that these terrorists don't seem to have ANY real concern for their own people. They have an extremist agenda, and nothing will come between them and their agenda: Not even the death of their own people. If they weren't fighting against us, they would be fighting each other (and already are in many cases).
These are not rational people at all. I think they are unlikely to repond to the death of thousands of their countrymen by saying, "Yikes! Our own people are dying. We'd better call this whole jihad thing off." I think the events in Iraq have shown that military intervention only radicalizes these crazy people even more. Every bomb we drop only serves to strengthen their resolve, and increase their numbers. Every death is a "martyrdom". Every time we capture or kill one of their leaders, they are simply replaced. Every time we capture or kill one of their rank and file, they are instantly replaced by two more.
I think we all agree that this is NOT a conventional war, and that our enemies are NOT conventional foes. So why would we think that conventional military responses, such as bombing them, would work?
Were we to bomb an entire city, we would instantly convert many millions of average, minding-my-own-business, doing-an-honest-days-work, just-trying-to-provide-for-my-family Arab citizens into angry, armed, I-will-defend-my-people-at-all-costs, I-will-die-to-protect-my-country, militant anti-americans. I would be pissed off too if America bombed my city just because some nutjob whacko terrorists happened to live a few miles down the road. I'm not a terrorist, but you are going to wipe out me and my entire family because somebody who just happens to live in my city blew up a building. Geez! That sucks!
But of course, we are not talking about blowing up MY city, or killing MY family. We are talking about a far off place that I can't relate to and don't much care about. A family I don't know, a family who looks different than me, a family that has a different religion, and wears a different style of clothing, and speaks a different language. We are talking about THEM....OVER THERE! So it's easier to consider wiping them off the face of the earth, than it is to think about blowing up MY city, or killing MY family.
I don't know what the answer is Spazz. I honestly don't. I just know that there HAS to be a better way than to meet terrorism against our innocent people, with terrorism against their innocent people. There HAS to be a better way than to avenge the murder of 3,000 of our innocent people, with the murder of 300,000 of their innocent people. There HAS to be a better way to beat these guys, than to merely BECOME LIKE THEM.
If I met a terrorist (domestic or foreign), I would gladly rip off his nuts with my bare hands, beat the living crap out of him, and then execute him.
If I met Mr Sahid, the guy who owns the grocery store at the end of Wallahah Street in downtown [Insert Arab city here], the guy who starts work at 4am and doesn't go home to his loving family until 9pm at night, the guy who only desires to live peacefully, and to provide a safe home and a fulfilling life for his wife; his 3 year old son; and his 6 yr old daughter....I would gladly shake his hand, invite him in, and ask him if he would like a cup of tea.
We HAVE to be able to distinguish between a terrorist, and peaceful citizen of a foreign nation.
We HAVE to be able to distinguish between what is morally just, and what is morally unjust.
We HAVE to be able to distinguish between who legitimately deserves to die, and who deserves to live his life without the Americans dropping a 2000 pound nuclear bunker buster on his family.
This ability to distinguish between right and wrong; innocent and guilty, is what makes us the great nation we are. Unfortunately, FEAR is causing us to lose sight of our morality and our humanity. The more frightened we become, the more we are in danger of becoming no different than the terrorists we fear.
KILL the terrorists who are responsible for deaths of thousands of our innocent people? Yes, absolutely! BECOME terrorists who are responsible for the deaths of thousands of their innocent people? No, absolutely not.
We ARE better than that! We are better than THE TERRORISTS!