What do you hit back very hard. You are hitting an amorphous network of
people, spread across 7 continents. Do you hit Hamburg? Berlin? London?
Paris? Caen? Cairo? Singapore? They all have terrorist cells operating from
them. Hitting hard will only escalate this type of aggression. You will
martyr people in their cause.
You see, we DO NOT think like they do. We are raised very differently. That
is part of the reason sometimes working with people from other societies can
be so difficult. That is where tolerance and understanding are so important.
We are used to quick wins and are NOT inclined to the long, protracted
fights. They are. They have smolder hatreds that go back 2000 years! That is
part of the reason we lost in Vietnam; they had been repressed by the
French, Chinese and Japanese for centuries. They were prepared to fight a
long, very long, protracted war. Yes, they were hurting near the end. They
lost untold millions of people. But I feel, had we beat them in Hanoi, it
would not have stopped the guerilla warfare and insurgencies that would have
continued for years. Look around you, there are literally tens of these
little wars going on around us all of the time - Cambodia, Chile, Mexico,
Columbia, Sri Lanka, all over Africa (the Sudan, Congo (Rhodesia), Ethiopia,
etc.), Kosovo, etc. People are dieing and suffering every day. But the
Vietnamese were a clearly defined enemy "state". And yes, our soldiers often
did not know who to kill. They killed indiscriminately in many cases and, in
doing so, lost the support of the local peoples.
We in this country are often so arrogant about our power. I spent 10 years
in the Air Force. I saw and worked with this power. Only, now the world is
changing. As flintlocks saw their day, so too have some of the weapons in
our arsenal when it comes to fighting this new war. They are next to
useless. ABM? What a waste of tax money. We are being sold a bill of goods.
That is a clever disguise for corporate welfare.
Watch half the Stallone and Schwartzenager(?) movies. It is the little guy
against the big guy, often the "government" or "a bad corporation". David
and Goliath. (And no, I am agnostic, however I recognize a good analogy, as
did the writers of the Bible, when I see one). Who wins? The analogy is
similar here. Their spread out, small, compartmentalized network protects
them while our solidarity, in the since that we have large fixed targets,
makes us vulnerable. If we indiscriminately kill in some form of retaliation
we may make hundreds or thousands of martyrs.
Are you ready to be like Israel, always looking over your shoulder at the
store for the suicide bomber? Scared to get on a bus? Road blocks and
checkpoints across the land?
I, for one, am not. No, we must first understand our enemy and be as patient
as they are. We must be smarter, not necessarily stronger, than they are.
Yes, there is a time for action and, if needed, killing. I have no moral
prohibition against that IF NEEDED. We must use our intelligence
organization to stop them. We should start by changing the way our
intelligence community thinks about the world. Maybe it is time for some
mandatory retirements. Get some new blood in there. That includes MI6,
Mosad, BND. We should focus on surgical vs. broad attacks in most cases. Not
all Muslims hate us in this country. Not all Arabs are Muslim, many are
Christians from Syria and Lebanon. Ever read "The Prophet" by Kahlil
Gahbran? Many in the country arrived long years ago, before or near the
turn of the century. It is the EXTREMISTS that we must look for. They incite
the nationalistic views of their countrymen.
It is no different than the nationalism that swept Germany at the end of the
20' up to WWII. Hitler used that very skillfully. Bin Laden, et. al., do the
same.
-Gary
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rick Eidson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 8:01 AM
> To: CF-Community
> Subject: RE: They (Americans) can't see why they are hated
>
>
> Even if we understand it should that change our response? I think
> not bottom
> line is they hit us we are going to hit back VERY HARD.
>
> Rick
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Adam Reynolds [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 3:29 AM
> To: CF-Community
> Subject: RE: They (Americans) can't see why they are hated
>
> I think the point he is trying to make is that the US must first try and
> understand why it happened. If America does not want to face the fact that
> Bin Laden was trained, equipped and supported by them then America is
> unlikely to solve this issue in the long term.
>
> Although in the short-term I'm sure America will bomb the hell out of one
> of the people that it trained.
>
>
> Adam
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 5:52 AM
> To: CF-Community
> Subject: RE: They (Americans) can't see why they are hated
>
> While it's true that the U.S. has made some very poor choices in the
> governments and leaders it has chosen to back, to say that is what made us
> so hated is a terribly simplistic answer.
>
> To say we have been a strong and consistent ally of Israel is to misstate
> the facts.
>
> We are reviled because we are rich, free and strong. We are hated because
> we
> do more good than evil. We are hated because more often than we
> have abided
> evil -- and we have -- we have fought against evil.
>
> Finally, we are the target most often of lunatics who distort facts and
> stir
> up discontent through the manipulation of their own warped religious
> beliefs.
>
> For this writer to give aide and comfort to the enemy of civilization is
> unbelievable. To try and defend an evil and murderous act is unbelievable.
>
> Is the U.S. without sin? No. Did we deserve this attack? I don't
> see how an
> intelligent person can make that statement.
>
> Despite our sins, we are still the beacon of light for a benighted world
> and
> we must not neglect our duty to spread freedom, democracy and
> capitalism to
> the entire world. We have done a poor job of that in the past, but I
> believe
> we have been doing an increasingly better job over the last
> several worlds,
> which obviously only makes us more hated by those who revile those values.
>
> H.
>
>
>
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