Until now we didn't consider ourselves to be at war. You don't kill civilians,
or soldiers for that matter if you are not at war.
At 09:35 PM 9/12/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>Ken,
>
>With the greatest of respect, civilians have been on the front lines since
>German bombers, supporting Franco, carpet bombed Madrid. After that, it
>was civilians in London and Manchester, in the Battle of Britain. Then it
>was civilians in Dresden, Nuremburg, Hamburg, Tokyo, Hiroshima and
>Nagasaki. And let's not forget the over 1 million Russian civilians that
>died in WWII - it is often forgotten that the Russians suffered by far the
>most civilian casualties in that war. And so it goes. Since WWII, massive
>civilian casualties have become a fact of war.
>
>All of this far pre-dates terrorism (or at least the type of terrorist acts
>we've seen in the last 20 or 30 years).
>
>And again, with the greatest of respect, terrorists do indeed understand
>massive force. But they react by massive force of their own. Look at
>what's happening in Israel and Palestine - and please, I'm not saying who's
>right or wrong here. But look at what's happening: a Palestinian car bomb
>goes off in Tel Aviv. The Israeli army retaliates by blowing up a few
>"suspected terrorist" houses. A Palestinian suicide bomber kills more
>innocent Israelis. Israel seals off a town, or bombs a suspected terrorist
>enclave. Violence escalates, and spirals out of control.
>
>And, don't forget, many terrorists are "international". If we (the West)
>go after Bin Laden by showing massive force against his "state sponsor",
>Afghanistan, he'll just move to another country. If Bin Laden is killed,
>his followers will move, and the violence will escalate in retribution.
>
>You mention Libya. But let's not forget Iraq. Ten years later, after
>Desert Storm and a debilitating trade embargo which has killed hundreds of
>thousands of Iraquis due to lack of food and medical supplies, Saddam is
>still around, with a highly motivated population, and still a threat.
>
>I don't know what the answer is. But I do know that upping the ante does
>not work. Massive force does not work. It only results in the deaths of
>innocent civilians on both sides. Yesterday's horrible events are evidence
>of that.
>
>regards,
>frank
>
>Ken Archer wrote:
>
> > Frank,
> >
> > Today's terrorists have rewritten the rules of war. In prior wars
> > there were soldiers and there were civilians. Civilians are now on the
> > front lines as evidenced by yesterday's attack on the World Trade
> > Center. Terrorists use the only thing they understand to get their
> > way...force. The only thing they will respond to is massive force.
> > You need only look at Libia to see what happens when we go after those
> > who support terrorists.
> >
>
>--
>"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist
>fears it is true." -J. Robert
>Oppenheimer
>-
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