Interesting discussion. Hope you don't mind me adding my two cents worth, as they say. I think you are both making good points. Perhaps the best approach is to not rule out any type of response in public statements, but only seriously consider using nukes if there is another attack that kills a very large number of people, much more than the in the attacks on the towers. And even then only if the pluses seem to outweigh the minuses. I agree with you Mike that we need to make those governments over there worry about any action on their part that supports terrorism in the future. I think the argument that we need to, as a high priority, be careful not to upset the Arab world over there is loosing its merit. If those radical elements over there hate us enough already to want to die trying to kill us, then it seems to me that they would use any weapon they can on us, so we must assume this, and make sure they never get the capability to kill huge numbers of people. This whole thing is becoming like a war between the people that want to take the whole planet back to the dark ages (worse even), and those that are continuing to move human civilization ahead. Like GWB said, either for us, or for the terrorists. So, that means taking them out, and as a last resort using whatever we really need to do that. If they hit us first with such an attack killing huge numbers, then that becomes a very different situation than we have now (I think we can prevent such commercial airplane attacks going forward - for one thing, I think the passengers probably will prevent that if nothing else does). Otherwise I think we should be able to take them out without using such weapons.
I wrote this quickly, not necessarily a well thought out reply, just trying to add something to the conversation. It is very sad that we have to even discuss such things, but the world of course has changed since Sept. 11. I remain hopeful that we will do the right thing, and the world will be a much better place going forward. Maybe history will record this as an incredibly horrible event, that will lead to the world virtually stamping out the terrorists, and also resulting in much more cooperation and preventive actions by nations as well as people all over the world. Maybe going forward from Sept. 11 we, the good people of the world, from all nations, we unite as never before. And America will lead the way. Also, maybe some other issues get addressed properly as a result, for example the Palestinian issue (not sure how to solve that, but there must be a way). Perhaps I am too optimistic, but I think the most likely scenario is that the world rises up to take on this challenge. Prior to Sept. 11 we did not realize the level of danger that such terrorists bring to our world. Now we understand this, and can work with great focus on the solutions. |
