One exchange I've been asked to post (edited only to remove side exchanges and excess duplication):
>>bomb them back to the 13th Century
>But that's where their mindset is.
Still, These people need to be punished in a way that they will feel it.
This atrocity was launched and completed on (over) US soil. Mass retaliation abroad is what they expect - they're probably hoping for it. the response must be devastating - but civilised, precise, and ... considered. Find the leaders. Seize them. And show that it is the generals, not the footsoldiers, that will feel the full weight of the sword of justice.
Fine, I just hope it is done. No talk; action, swift, and accurate.
It's stateless criminals that have called war on the West. Treat them as such.. Don't try destroying any country which might harbour those who sympathise... that can and will make things much, much worse...
Anybody harboring such criminals deserve every attack it is coming to them. No exceptions. ... As I type this, it seems that US Military is attacking what seems to be a terrorist base. --------------
My response: Anybody harboring such criminals deserve every attack it is coming to them. No exceptions.
I don't know if you've seen any of my other posts today. But by these lights, the UK would have been justified in wiping out Dublin - because the IRA had leaders based and funded there. Indeed, the IRA got much funding from the NY St Patrick's Day parades: should we have shot Trident warheads at New York, to stop these terrorists and the country harbouring them?
Attacks on civilians, nothing to do with atrocities, are never justified. It was bad enough in WWII - in Coventry, or Dresden, or even Hiroshima. It's especially wrong to massacre the poor citizens of a country - not at war with you - because some faction supposedly supported by the leadership has attacked elsewhere... that can never be right... ---------------
I lived in London at a time when the IRA was quite active. I lived in front of the embassies of Syria and Iceland. (I believe it was Eaton Terrace, close to Sloane Square). To this day, I remember the blast in a building nearby in Kings Road. So I remember well the feelings and the debate.
Indeed, the IRA got much funding from the NY St Patrick's Day parades: should we have shot Trident warheads at New York, to stop these terrorists and the country harboring them?
Not on such scale, but perhaps seek the indictment of those responsible, this country HAS the structure for such action.
ANY group, being this a country or not should be attacked if they are harboring terrorists. First, ask them to truly co-operate and capture them. If not, then I agree for the US to go after them regardless.
I am NOT asking for a "wipe out" unless it is warranted given the cover up that may be offered by such country.
It is WAR. Undeclared officially, but the acts are just the same. In addition, and I am not "condoning the IRA", you simply cannot compare the bombings by the IRA, which at times they simply destroyed property, to what happened this morning.
Up until this morning, I would consider myself somehow willing to compromise and attempt to "negotiate" a peace that would listen to what terrorists would have to say.
Not any more.
If you are a terrorist, you get bombed, I don't give a shit what. You harbor terrorists? You get bombed too.
There HAS to be a stop, there has to be a drawn line. I am not going to simply sit and watch how these bastards destroy the world around me. Watch them kill thousands of people that are absolutely innocent.
The attacks you made reference to, were attacks of people at war, I am NOT in favor of war, but I will support it if it is the only way I would have to defend myself.
Attacks on civilians, nothing to do with atrocities, are never justified. It was bad enough in WWII - in Coventry, or Dresden, or even Hiroshima. It's especially wrong to massacre the poor citizens of a country - not at war with you - because some faction supposedly supported by the leadership has attacked elsewhere... that can never be right...
To a degree, I agree. However, you cannot compare a full-fledged and declared war such as it was in WWII to these cowardly attacks. Besides, today we have the technology today (to a degree), that surgical attacks can be engineered.
Once again, I am not asking to nuke the places where the terrorists are. But a healthy bombing making sure that those responsible get their reward. Absolutely, I support it.
...
Well, thanks for the offer, but maybe I should not, I said what I wanted to say and it is done, I cannot change a thing one way or the other. I am angry, extremely angry and I feel helpless. But my views about certain things have changed. I have felt it and it is my instinct that tells me things have change. I have to adjust my views accordingly.
I also feel very sorry for the people that died today, for them and for their families. I feel somehow sick too, because I watched on TV how this entire event happened.
This fact brought back eerie memories to me:
Back in the early 70's, in the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, Roger Williamson, a bright up and coming British driver (Formula 3 champion), with a promising career, burn to death as David Purley, another British driver, tried to rescue him from the flames. Later in the day, I sat there watching on TV, helpless. I remember that a Dutch fire marshal with a fire extinguisher in his hands, afraid for his own safety, would not cross the track to assist David in his rescue effort. Roger died that day.
The fire marshal reminds me of those clamoring for compassion to terrorists as I see the two WTC buildings come down in flames with thousands of people inside them, dying as it happens.
So yes, please, post the exchange between us. Thank you. ---------------
Hopefully I haven't offended anyone by adding this. But it's such an understandable POV, and even if I don't agree with it all I empathise with it.
:`-( ts |