Posted on 10/27/2003 5:00:41 AM PST by kattracks
Edited on 05/26/2004 5:17:14 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
October 27, 2003 -- Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was just a floor away from danger yesterday when a missile barrage blitzed the Baghdad hotel where he was staying - killing an American colonel and wounding 18 other people. Wolfowitz was dressing in a 12th-floor room when eight to 10 missiles crashed into the western side of the Al Rasheed hotel at 6:10 a.m. - punching holes in the modern, concrete facade and shattering windows in two dozen rooms.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
According to a thread last night on the Detroit debate, one or more of the 'Rat candidates was taking potshots at Wolfowitz. What would they be saying if he had been a casualty? Applauding the "freedom fighters"?
Rockets Hit Baghdad Hotel Where Wolfowitz Was Staying
Half were apparently Russian missiles. The newer ones were French made and the kind used in helicopters according to the NYTs who used "American officials" for a source.
Firmer than the Sun anyway.
I'm curious when President Bush is going to lay down the hammer on France. How many dead Americans will it take ?
The London Sun reported today that half of the rockets used in the attack were French weapons produced after the arms embargo against Iraq following the Gulf War.
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See also Prodigal Son's #5 - Russian made, too.
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What exactly would you like him to do?
Publicly denounce France.
Issue ultimatums to North Korea, Syria, and Iran to give up their WMDs and terrorists.
Launch devastating and final airstrikes on North Korea, Syria and Iran unless our ultimatums are met.
You can buy high school rocket kits with better range than the ones fired at us. They do sound incredibly primitive. Sort of like Katyushas from WW II.
Surrender the WMDs and terrorists in your countries.
I would reckon the reason Bush hesitates to lower the boom on all these places at once is because it is more boom than we physically have at present to lower.
Ah, the humanitarian in us ...
We don't have much time though, based on public news reports. Do you think "we'd still have to go into those countries" if they launched a WMD against our forces or those of our allies ?
I suppose we would at some point. I don't want to wait for the event. I believe in the Bush doctrine of preemptive strikes. History bears it out.
The humanitarian in you perhaps.
I personally, don't really give a sh!t about the people in any of those places. We had to go into Afghanistan not because of the plight of the people but because the fundies could not be rooted out by air power alone. We're still trying to root them out. We are on the ground right now in Iraq looking and looking for Saddam's WMD. Who knows how long it's going to take to find them. You'd have to go in to each of those places because the air strikes would not accomplish all your goals. When you're dealing with WMD 80% uncertainty is not acceptable. Not at all.
You believe in the Bush doctrine of preemptive strikes? But a preemptive strike isn't limited to air power. We preempted Saddam by physically going into Iraq. Let's say you launch a massive cruise missile strike into Pakistan. You think you might have taken out all the nukes there but you're not sure. What are you going to do? You have to have human beings on the ground to make sure. Would you feel comfortable with hearing the Pentagon spokesman say to the television
"we may have gotten all the nukes, but now since the Taliban/al Qaeda have overthrown Musharraf, we just can't tell?"LOL. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night where I presently live if that were the case.
But not to put to fine of a point on it- preemptive strikes doesn't mean "not physically going into a country". Air power alone is not very effective- unless we're talking nukes here. Now you can solve a lot of problems really quickly with nukes.
When our survival as a nation is threatened we go nuclear.
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