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Pastimes : THE SLIGHTLY MODERATED BOXING RING -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (1750)	3/7/2002 7:17:55 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

In for the Kill This war is not about winning territory, but about killing the members of a murderous gang. March 6, 2002 1:15 p.m. The battle of Tora Bora was such an opportunity for the U.S., not just because Osama bin Laden might have been on the scene (which seems debatable), but because it offered an unparalleled chance to kill large numbers of al Qaeda. It's much easier to get them when they are concentrated and armed in a specific area of Afghanistan, than when they are spread throughout Pakistan, the Middle East, and even the West. This is why the battle of Shahikot valley is so important. The fundamental fact is that this war is not about winning territory, but about killing the members of a murderous gang. Any retreat or cute partial-surrender deal that lets al Qaeda members escape is worthless to us. And any deal that lets us capture al Qaeda is also a less-than-desirable outcome (although, obviously, we have to accept surrenders). According to the New York Times on Sunday, one reason that we want to take DNA samples of Gitmo detainees is, essentially, so that we'll know who they are when they get released and we catch them again. Here's the Times: "[Officials said the DNA samples] would be particularly important because they now believed that many of the detainees would have to be released before the government was certain who they are." This is truly astonishing. The Wall Street Journal had more encouraging news yesterday when it reported that the Bush administration may consider mere membership in al Qaeda a war crime. This makes a lot of sense, as I've written in the past. But if we are instead just going to let them go, it raises the question of why we took all the diplomatic heat involved in bringing these prisoners to Gitmo in the first place. Why not just leave them to Gen. Dostum, who considers his prisoners well fed if they are eating grass? Yes, there has been some intelligence gathered in Gitmo, at least from one detainee, who reportedly told us of an impending attack in the U.S. or Yemen. But if the price for this is letting hundreds of would-be murderers back out into the world, one wonders if it's worth it. Consider: The terrorist we're going to release from Gitmo, or who escaped under one of those partial Tora Bora deals, may be the terrorist involved in some future plot to explode a nuclear weapon in the United States. Here's a disturbing bit from Sunday's Washington Post: "the intelligence community . . .believes that al Qaeda could already control a stolen Soviet-era tactical nuclear warhead or enough weapons-grade material to fashion a functioning, if less efficient, atomic bomb." The stakes, then, are extremely high. This war is not about revenge (as some conservatives have it), but about self-defense, the fundamental basis of any morally justified war, which this so clearly is. That's why should pray for our men in Shahikot — pray for their safety, pray for their families, and pray that they kill as many al Qaeda as possible. nationalreview.com