Let's be clear about what "war" means.
If Afghanistan refuses to hand over the people responsible, then we
will declare war on Afghanistan. How could we not? But what would be
the objective of the war? Obviously, the destruction of the Taliban
and its replacement by a pro-western client government. And this will
be accomplished by dropping large number of bombs and shooting large
numbers of bullets. And many people will be killed.
If we decide that "even one innocent person killed will be too many",
then we have no choice but to surrender to the terrorists now. All
they have to do is threaten one innocent person, and we will have to
surrender. No, we know that innocent people will die in the attack.
That cannot and will not be our goal. We will not, as a matter of
policy, target the Afghan population. But when bombs drop, people die.
If we dare not harm a single civilian, then we dare not use military
force.
People have compared this act to Pearl Harbor. But, there's an
important difference. Then, the whole country of Japan was mobilized
to defeat the US. In that war, there was really no significant
difference between the Japanese citizens who wore the uniforms and
those who worked in the factories or grew the food that supplied the
soldiers.
But, Afghanistan is different. First of all, there are no factories in
Afghanistan. There is no transportation or communication
infrastructure. Most of the population is engaged in subsistence
agriculture and herding. And the most important part, Afghanistan is
not a tightly organized totalitarian state. The average German or
Japanese was commited to the war, even if he secretly disagreed. But
Afghanistan isn't centralized. People will fight us, yes, but in small
gourps, perhaps family by family. Afghanistan can no longer really be
said to be a country, rather it is more of a region.
I guess I want to explain that declaring war on Afghanistan doesn't
mean genocidal nuclear attack. It just means that we can shoot people
who interfere.
A judicial model for dealing with terrorists will fail. All the
Taliban has to do is refuse to extradite bin Ladin. All we can do is
impose sanctions. But Afghanistan has almost no trade, it is a
subsistence economy. Sanctions are useless. The Taliban has nothing
to fear from us, except military force.
And no matter what happens, no matter which group of terrorists is
responsible, we have to end the ability of terrorist groups to operate.
And that will likely mean the end of the Taliban, no matter what.
Even if we don't actually invade ourselves, we have no choice but to
replace them with something else.
=====
Darryl
Think Galactically -- Act Terrestrially
__________________________________________________
Terrorist Attacks on U.S. - How can you help?
Donate cash, emergency relief information
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/US/Emergency_Information/
