<When dealing with ruthless terrorists, tit-for-tat seems like a good strategy to me. The alternative, seek them out wherever they are and exterminate them, may be even better.
If they want their human rights honored, let them honor ours as well. Otherwise, obliterate them. >
The annoying thing is they live in a village, town or city, which has only a relatively small proportion of people in favour of murdering bulk people in Bali, the Twin Towers, etc. Tit for tat in the sense of collective revenge is horrific - though sometimes necessary as with Japan where they gave in when the saw nukes landing.
The British did 'seek them out and destroy' with a couple of IRA guys in Spain. My colleague [a Brit] said "Yeah!!" [actually, he doesn't speak like that, but it meant that]. I was my usual liberal self and thought that due legal process might have been preferable. Perhaps not achievable [capturing them and getting them to Britain might have been problematic, though Spain and Britain were buddies - maybe Spain thought it a good thing to let Britain kill them in the street].
Extra-judicial killing has got a very bad record and seems to invariably include some convenient innocent people who for some reason or other get killed under the cloak of the process.
I don't think USA extra-judicial killing will be any better.
The sad fact is that the world does still operate as the middle east does. No law, just power. Law of the jungle. Hobbesian red in tooth and claw. I don't think that's a good way to run a railroad or animal farm. Unfortunately, the big dogs often think it's good because they, invariably temporarily, are top dog. That's the way to run a wolf pack, but not a human race.
Parents behaving like the children isn't a good way to run a family. While the barbarian standards of the children define the relationship to some extent, it's a matter of bringing them into the orbit of civilisation. It's a long process, but worth it. It's also what they want - often they just don't know it until they are there.
Mqurice |
