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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kvkkc1 who wrote (183680)	9/19/2001 6:04:53 AM
From: MSI	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

The question is: what are the next possible tactics ... Anybody have guesses ?

To: kvkkc1 who wrote (183680)	9/19/2001 9:09:17 AM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

Hi kvkkc1; Re "The problem is finding the terrorist cells, who I doubt will use the same military tactics." As far as protecting American civilians tomorrow, you're right, the problem is finding the terrorist cells. But as we find those cells, new ones will be constantly created. It's a never ending problem. We could eliminate ObL as a terrorist threat by simply acceding to his demands. He wants (1) US troops out of Saudi Arabia; (2) US to leave Iraq alone; and (3) US to cease support for Israel. But once people discover that they have a "hammer", they tend to turn all their problems into nails, and Islamic Fundamentalists have a lot of other problems with US foreign policy: If we agree to this, I doubt that the demands would cease. Here's what will be next on the list: (4) Remove troops from all locations in the Middle East. (5) Eliminate all support for the moderate regime in Turkey, which is a Moslem NATO member. (6) Press Greece to give up on Cyprus. (7) Cease assistance to the Philippines, which has Moslem separatist problems. (8) Remove the military base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. (9) Pay reparations for past injury to Moslems in Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. (10) Give US ex leaders over to Islamic courts for war crimes trials. (11) Cease all relations with China, which has Moslem separatist problems. (12) Cease all relations with the various Arab or Moslem nations which have not yet been taken over by the Taliban version of Islamic Fundamentalism. That would include every Moslem nation except Afghanistan. (13) Let loose from jail all Moslem prisoners in the United States. (14) Provide military arms to countries so that they can defend themselves from Israel. (15) Disarm so that the United States can no longer threaten peaceful Islamic nations. (16) Cease relations with countries that failed to agree to any of the other above items. I could go on, but I think I've covered most of it. I'd love for the US to be isolationist, but that doesn't mean that the US can afford to have its foreign policy dictated by terrorists. Given this, our policy towards those who support terrorism against us is clear. We must make it less painful to leave us alone than to hassle us. People say that suicide bombers won't listen to reason, but how many Islamic leaders have ever, in the history of Islam, turned themselves into suicide bombs? My count is zero, and this proves that the people who control terrorism are subject to the usual normal human pressures. Heck, the United States had its own, home grown, lily white purposeless suicide terrorists at Colombine HS in Colorado a little while ago. Things are going very well for the US. Pakistan, which was the supporter for the Taliban, is now confronting them along the border. When the US went into Vietnam, we were pretty much the only country that was interested in supporting a Democratic regime there. Everybody else sent token forces (except Australian and Great Britain, as far as I can recall). At the same time, there were two large and powerful nations nearby that wanted us to lose, USSR and China. My hope for Afghanistan is that the US will be responsible for overwhelming the initial static defenses, and then Pakistan, with assistance from moderate Arab countries, will be responsible for the police action. The thing to note is that Afghanistan is not pointing its SCUD missiles at the US or at Israel. They are pointing them at the crowded cities of Pakistan. How many friends is that going to make for them? The Taliban is far more of a threat to Pakistan than it is to the US. That applies to military threat as well as terror threat. The Taliban is also a threat to Iran, but they are not much of a threat to the US. Consequently, we can reasonably expect assistance from the locals. The only real long term threat we have is if the Islamic extremist fundamentalists take over substantial territories in the Middle East. But so far, they've not been able to do so, and the countries that they have taken over (like Iran) are slowly becoming moderate. In addition, the Islamic extremist fundamentalists fight among themselves as hard as the Catholics and Protestants fight. -- Carl