That won't work. It will be interpreted as weakness. You're forgetting that part of the Arab shtick is to get up there and say things like, "We will fill the oceans with your blood."
How many times did we hear crap like that from Mullah Omar or Saddam Hussein? Those kinds of threats are part of the game to them. It's what they do when they're scared. And that is how they will interpret any such thing from us.
Unfortunately, the only thing that is going to get their attention is actually doing it. That means no warnings, no threats, just a Whole Bunch of dead people, by surprise.
Then you can suggest to the ones left that if they don't want to see that again, they should knock off the ankle-biting.
To work, it has to be something truly horrific... something that will leave the French and even the Pope gasping for air instead of criticizing us for it... some engineering solution, coldly applied.
three countries in the region will be reduced to smoking rubble
To work, it has to be something truly horrific
That is not necessary. President Bush said sometime ago that we now have the capability to target and take out the leaders . Inform the tyrants of these countries that if there are anymore attacks against our country the tyrants will die. Let these tyrants find and eliminate the terrorists. Tell them this threat privately.
Posted by Nick Danger:
"...To work, it has to be something truly horrific... something that will leave the French and even the Pope gasping for air instead of criticizing us for it..."
Nick, while brutal, that is a response many FReepers have considered to be the best and most effective method. If the terrorists subsequently have to be concerned about where they will find water, food, basic medicine, and even toilet paper...they won't have too much spare time to plan their next cowardly attack to murder innocents thousands of miles away. Like you said, another truck bomb occurs and we simply vaporize another couple cities.
In the end, it might be the most humane method because one minute the terrorists and their supporters are saying, "Gee, Muhammad ali-Subhaki...what's that whistling sound...and what's that sun-like flash of light?" The next thing they know, they've been incinerated and waiting on line for their seventy-two Virginians*.
~ Blue Jays ~
* If you haven't heard about the seventy-two Virginians, just let me know in the thread...
Carpet nuking would do the thing, IMHO