What's with this being nice to Muslims who hate us?

Myself | 11/17/03 | Eb Wilson

[Texas_Jarhead]

Crush the Saddamites and Jihadis!

[Jorge]

They are so weak, desperate and cowardly.
We can afford being nice. And still be twice as serious about kicking their sorry butts.

It's all PR. We're the good guys.

[blackbart.223]

"War is a mechanism designed for conquest, driven by specific goals usually involving the pummeling and outright smiting of the will of the enemy, and his country, as he knows it."

It sure worked when we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Regretable as those actions were.

[lainde]

bttt

[FITZ]

Well --- when the Nazis were attacking us, we weren't nice to them. I'm not sure niceness will work with the Islamics ---- they don't respect it. They respect strength.

[Smogger]

War is not a police action, and is not bound by the rules of evidence and governed by stateside juris-precedence found through many years of conducting police actions in the U.S. War is a mechanism designed for conquest, driven by specific goals usually involving the pummeling and outright smiting of the will of the enemy, and his country, as he knows it. Then the war is over. When the war is over, we occupy, and with restraint, mete out justice with fairness and discipline appropriate for a ruined society. War is the ruin of society.

I think what we've done here is conducted a partial coup, and forgot to complete the war with the sound defeat of the will of the enemy. An enemy without the will to continue in his old ways will be easier to teach in new ways. There was not enough blood... not enough cost of innocent life and way of life to the Iraqis to convince them all that they understand the true payment that tempting a war will require. Through the years, the Iraqi people have sat back, doing nothing to stop the growth of the vile dictatorship under which they lived.

on Sept. 1 Sherman occupied Atlanta. Intending to burn only buildings used for military purposes, his army set fires that raged out of control and destroyed much of the city. Sherman then launched his March to the Sea, with 60,000 of his most seasoned soldiers foraging off the land and cutting a swath of destruction through the heart of Georgia. On December 23, Sherman's forces occupied Savannah. After giving his army a rest, Sherman then proceeded on a path of destruction through South and North Carolina. Three weeks after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Gen. Joseph Johnston -- who was in command of all Confederate forces in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida -- gave his formal surrender to Sherman at Durham Station, N.C. on April 26, 1865.

One thing I remember from my History books is William T. Sherman. Sherman showed us how modern warfare is fought. Regrettably, you have to take the war to the civilain's, and cut off shelter and supplies to the insurgent's, but more impotantly, and unforutnately, it's the civilains that need to suffer in order to break the resistance. This proved to be true in both Germany and Japan.

When the Iraqi's people are tired of fighting is when the fighting will stop.

[piasa]

The bulk of the people doing the fighting are NOT Iraqis, folks. Nor is their 'insurgency' all that impressive.

They're foreigners to Iraq, and like al Qaeda's membership, many have palestinian roots. They come in from surrounding countries and from elsewhere. The few Iraqis involved are secularized Sunnis who have long used palestinian refugees as their gophers since unemployed, testosterone-pumped young men with palestinian backgrounds are a dime a dozen in the ME and willing to do vile things even to their fellow Arabs.

[Smogger]

Regardless. The bulk of the people fighting, be they Iraqis or foreigner, could not do what they are doing without the material support of at least some of the local populous.

Had thier spirits been more broken (the average Iraqis), perhaps by 30 or more days of protracted bombing, they would be more, let us say reluctant, to lend that support.

Of course there would be more cost in terms of reconstruction, but it would have saved American lives, and reconstruction gets expensive if the resistance keeps blowing everything up ever few days too.

[Prodigal Son]

I'll mention the U.S. Army captain who fired a shot next to a captive enemy combatant in Iraq to gain valuable and timely intelligence

I see you've already demoted the man. He is a Lieutenant Colonel.

[Egon]

Pride ping!

[RhoTheta]

Right on, Eb!

This is a difficult war because of the diffuse nature of the enemy. I applaude our recent effort to isolate a section of the hostile terretory and then go house to house. It might be time to do psych-ops over Tikrit: day and night gunships with loudspeakers playing Wagner and Arab language messages such as "Repent and come out of her" for about 24 hours, with any fire being returned with massive supression. After 24 hours, if fire continues, MOAB. Then send in the ground troops to sift the ashes. Then switch this tactic to the next hotest center of resistance. I wonder how long hostilities would continue faced with this. I'm not talking all of Iraq, just the Sunii triangle.

At the same time, it would be refreshing for a Patton-like leader to walk into the HQ where the benighted decision was made to court marshall an officer who was actually fighting the war and protecting his men, and dispatch one or two of these treasonous REMFs with a pearl-handled, chrome-plated revolver. The word needs to percolate down that the military exists to kill people and break things, not to act as social workers to dole out welfare from America to terrorists.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Ping, if you can stomach it.

[Valin]

"It is easy to fly into a passion--anybody can do that--but to be angry with the right person and at the right time and with the right object and in the right way--that is not easy, and it is not everyone who can do it."
Aristotle

[Valin]

They

Define your terms. Who are "they"?

[Eb Wilson]

I understand that my post may have been misunderstood at first glance. It seems a bit harsh to think that a solution to the problem with Iraq (from the course that we took, being war), would be to see a war through to it's end with all the blood, inhumanity --if you might call it that, and injustice. I think that when the choice is warfare, we should see it through to the end, not pull any punches. There is a purpose for war, and if we don't complete that purpose, or lose sight of it along the way, we only cause suffering, to be someday revisited.
If war be the prescription, we should follow through with the full dose, or we'll have to do it again someday.

--I noticed earlier that "texas..." or someone inserted RACIST and NEWBIE in the keyword section, and cannot understand why those were put in. I could only chalk it up to that person's hasty reply. I put some thought into my post and would appreciate thoughtful replies. I'm not sure what NEWBIE means to the folks on this board, but I can assure you that my conservative opinions are not new to me.

[nuconvert]

I still haven't heard you answer the question. Who are "they"?

[RightWhale]

Mr E-flat:

Vanities are supposed to say "Vanity" in the title.

[Destructor]

Muslims are true savages. Violent, superstitious, hateful, uncivilized, and ignorant. Islam is founded on violence, treachery, hatred, and deceit. Most Muslims are evil people. I'd put the percentage as high as the 92%-95% range.

Regardless of what the Muslims say, I refuse to believe that Muslims worship the living God. The actions of Muslim speak louder than their words.

[RightWhale]

I refuse to believe that Muslims worship the living God

Maybe they do. Still, they are world-class heretics.