We may as well kick the corpses of the people who died, since we have no chance of going "nod, nod, wink, wink" to the American people, or to the Europeans who look to us for leadership, or to those trying to gauge our resolve and vulnerability. It is a dreadful idea.
In addition, we must take the opportunity to destroy infrastructure, such as base camps, and, incidentally, a number of terrorists. We should clobber a few of the more offensive regimes. Bombing alone is not the solution, we need troops on the ground to destroy and kill the right targets, and to make sure that it is done right. The main reason the terrorists bother is that they think we haven't the character to fight. Obviously we have the means, but we are perceived as a paper tiger. We must disabuse them of that idea by determined action.
Let us understand and acknowledge that no set of grievances could conceivably justify the actions of the terrorists last week. Now, consider what Israel has lived with: for decades, the Palestinian insurgents have not merely targeted civilians, but deliberately targeted children. If any one thinks that going out of one's way to hit school buses and such, when there are other targets, is at all justified by Palestinian grievances, his head is up an orifice. For decades, the Israelis have had to deal with an enemy that performed such deeds, and a populace that cheered it on. Calling it a terrorist state, because it has not always held back from brutality itself, is lacking in elementary understanding of the situation that the Israelis have had to live with. If it were a terrorist state, Arafat would be dead, not a negotiating partner; the Palestinians would have been driven from the West Bank; and Baghdad would be a pile of radioactive rubble. Israel has, by and large, been amazingly restrained.
While there is something to the idea that terrorists wish to cause polarization, the main aim of terrorism is the aim of all warfare: to break the will of the enemy to resist. Retaliation should be tailored accordingly: to show that we intend to fight back, and to break their confidence and will........... |
