<<As KB says, if we cock this up and make it bigger and stronger, then we will have signed the death warrant for many more of our own, including women and children. >>
Ed, thousands of our men, women and children have already died in this horrible terrorist attack. Do you expect this to be the end? Do you believe that the terrorists do not intend to use weapons of mass destruction? Based on the activities of the highjackers, the FBI is looking into terrorist use of crop duster planes to spread chemical weapons, terrorist theft of hazardous waste to make weapons of mass destruction, and terrorist use of mosquito control equipment presumably to spread biological or chemical weapons (see Washington Post excerpt below). The U.S. has some large population centers that are very vulnerable to terrorist use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Can you imagine the potential casualties of germ warfare or poisoning the drinking water in the large cities? What is your threshhold when will you say that we should use neutron bombs? When we have lost tens of thousands? hundreds of thousands? millions? of innocent people to these weapons of mass destruction? If neutron bombs can reduce the loss of life of our soldiers, why not use them? What is the alternative - drop conventional bombs and then have our soldiers charge the bunkers which hold the Taliban/bin Laden?
Iraq's Saddam Hussein is the gravest threat to the world, much more so than Osama bin Laden. He has regained his power and influence, has a huge war chest, helps recruit and train terrorists and plan terrorist attacks, and is building up his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. It is essential to the war on terrorism to get rid of him and dismantle his war machine. There is most probably no way the U.S. can, for a second time, form a coalition and wage a conventional war against Iraq. Using the neutron bomb to destroy the Republican Guard and military installations is the most effective way, and we should use it.
Is it really important if more terrorists are attracted by dropping a neutron bomb, if the terrorist safe harbors and weapons of mass destruction are destroyed? Why does the number of terrorists matter so much. It only took 19 terrorists to kill 7,000 people. How many lives can one terrorist take by using biological weapons in a large city?
Children of Mideast fanatics are being raised to hate Christians and Jews (see excerpt below of one example at a Palestinian university). Restraining ourselves from using neutron bombs is not going to change that. It's like trying to reason with the Hutus and Tutsis in Africa which were brought up to hate each other over hundreds of years. Reasoning with fanatics just does not make sense, history is replete with examples. Remember how Neville Chamberlin tried to reason and negotiate with Hitler? BTW, WWII is a good example of using all of our weapons to stop a war. It was a race between Germany and the U.S. to build an atom bomb. If the U.S. had not used the bomb and Germany did, we would be living in an entirely different world today.
BTW, Ed, my comment about the lesson learned from Vietnam was from a military perspective. I, in no way, meant to imply that this was a just war. Vietnam was a national tragedy. The terrorist attack in America is completely different. It is a just war whose objective is to destroy terrorism. We should use the most effective means to do this while preventing casualties among our soldiers or innocent people. If the neutron bomb is the most effective means to do this in certain situations, then we should use it without regard for whether it will attact more fanatics to terrorist ranks.
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From Washington Post:
"Ashcroft's remarks and the disclosure of the new charges focused attention on the prospect of a new terrorist threat -- not in the skies, but on the roads. Congress and the Bush administration have been moving to tighten security at commercial airports, and the Federal Aviation Administration has twice grounded crop-dusters for fear that they could be used in chemical attacks.
But the FBI and the Department of Transportation also warned the trucking industry to watch for suspicious activity in connection with hazardous chemicals, including radioactive waste and other substances that can be used to create weapons of mass destruction.
On Monday, the FBI also asked mosquito-control personnel to take an immediate inventory of their trucks and other equipment and report any missing or stolen pieces."
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From Opinion Journal:
opinionjournal.com
Palestinian Pizza Party
Al-Najah University, in the West Bank city of Nablus, has opened an exhibition that celebrates terrorism, including a re-enactment of a Jerusalem suicide bombing. The Associated Press reports:
Wearing a military uniform and a black mask, a Palestinian set off a fake explosion in a replica of the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem, where a suicide bomber killed himself and 15 other people last month. . . . The exhibit also includes a large rock in front of a mannequin wearing the black hat, black jacket and black trousers typically worn by ultra-Orthodox Jews. A recording from inside the rock calls out: "O believer, there is a Jewish man behind me. Come and kill him."
John Podhoretz notes an Associated Press photo that shows those entering the exhibit are being directed to step on the American flag. In an interview with the Israeli service IMRA, Rafi Ahmed, a spokesman for the university, likens bombing to boxing: "The students held so many activities. Not just academic but social as well. Not just political. For example playing sports. Last week there was a boxing celebration for those who learned boxing." |
