Group:
The comments herein are a discredit to Freepers. MOAB? i.e. kill thousands in Fallujah on the off-chance we might kill this guy?
What sort of bone head idea is that?
There's a group on this board who simply want to kill Iraqi's indiscriminately. No concerns about the goal (free Iraq), less concern bout the morality of the methods employed.
This is a tough job, maybe undoable, but killing everyone in Iraq is not an option.
I agree with you completely.
There is no way we should just go in and start indiscriminately bombing the very people we are trying to save.
You see..... that's the fundamental problem. We went to war against terrorists. We declared that everyone had to choose to be on our side, or on the side of the terrorists. We stated that we would treat those who aid terrorists just like the terrorists themselves.
Then we somehow morphed into this deal where we were going to provide freedom for Iraq, and this became the most important thing. So important that we can't kill some of the terrorists when we know what city they are in because we might make those we want to be free mad at us.
"What sort of bone head idea is that?"
It is not bone headed, it is a time honored military technique that works. Read a little history. Brutal, overwhelming tactics often result in fewer total casualties and more important, they often lead to total victory, even when dealing with fanatics, such as these Islamic terrorists, the Jewish Zealots during Roman times, and the WWII Japanese
"concerns about the goal (free Iraq)"
Think. Our ancestors shed their blood for freedoms that we now have. Since then, repeatedly, our folks have shed their blood for the freedom of others. I wouldn't have an attitude about Iraq if the Iraqis stood next to our soldiers and participated, using our effort as a launching pad for their own effort to help themselves. Unfortunately, the majority of the Iraqis that are fighting happen to be subversive so-and-so's that refute our efforts to hand them freedom. Ingrates should get nothing.
When the Marines had those loyal tribes cornered in the old city we should have bounced the rubble. Instead our administration capitulated to international pressure and our domestic election cycle and dishonored the lives of those young Marines sacrificed in the initial probes.
There were/are no innocents in the old city. Men, women and children stayed there to support a cause.
I'm not necessarily disagreeing with your follow-on statement about killing lots of "innocents", but killing a large number of people was instrumental in winning WWII (the last war we actually "won" conclusively).
ore important than killing, a statement must be made about domination in order to end the conflict and restore order. But killing lots of people (combatants and others) IS an effective way of doing so. Perhaps this newfangled "friendly war" concept will work. Only time will tell. But every time I see Iraqi's dancing in the street near a burning Humvee with US soldiers' corpses inside, I wonder about this approach.