[Isidingo]

I don't accept that, I'm sorry. Time and again we make stuff ups on intelligence. The whole Iraq war is a case in point. Not to mention the little fubar in Tonkin etc etc.
There are two points here...
This was a strike on a civillian compound. Not a military installation.
and two
It was a bombing in another country. How can you warp your reasoning around that? As I said in the other thread, by the same reasoning, the UK could have bombed New York for all the IRA supporters living there. South Africa could have nailed New Orleans for the ANC supporters and by the same argument, Castro should be able to nuke Florida.
You can't committ acts of violence without expecting retribution. Isn't that your entire reasoning on this? And it doesn't matter who gets killed in the retribution.
So by rights we shouldn't really complain if some Pakistani comes along and demolishes an apartment block in America because that's where US soldiers live.
There is no honour and no justice in this. It's murder. And it makes us no better than them.

[trebb]

There are two points here...
This was a strike on a civillian compound. Not a military installation.
and two
It was a bombing in another country. How can you warp your reasoning around that?

One - the terrorists don't maintain military installations.
Two - the terrorists have no qualms about attacking other countries - we were "another country" for 911 and the previous attempt to bring down the WTC. It would be hard to find many countries the terrorists haven't committed murderous atrocities in and they go and hide out in a handful of countries.

How do you warp your own mind around giving them free amnesty to continue to pland and carry out attacks of terror? Be damn glad that those before you didn't feel that way or you wouldn't have the great country you live in or to be able to express your ideas, no matter how misguided and hateful, towards the same country that gives you so much.

[melancholy]

So by rights we shouldn't really complain if some Pakistani comes along and demolishes an apartment block in America because that's where US soldiers live.

You wish!

There is no honour and no justice in this. It's murder. And it makes us no better than them.

We didn't cut anybody's head on video yet, what do you say to that?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Twas Good:

Source: 4 terrorists killed in U.S. missile strike
Foreigners had been invited to dinner, Pakistani official says
Tuesday, January 17, 2006; Posted: 11:50 a.m. EST (16:50 GMT)

[Peach]

You can't honestly be unaware of the fact that terrorists USE children and families and hide among them?

I am SO glad you weren't around during WWII.

I can just hear you now when we bombed apartment buildings in Berlin. You'd be screaming "but there were innocent women and children in there."

Do us a favor and leave the war to the grown up. You aren't up to the task and don't seem to understand that in every war innocent people die. That's just the way it is.

[Coop]

This was a strike on a civillian compound.

So if a forward observation team is operating out of a local home, calling in artillery fire on your position, you apparently would not be comfortable attacking this civilian compound, would you Sweetie?

Oh, you mean it ceased being a civilian compound when the soldiers started using it? (Has the light bulb come on yet?)

[gandalftb]

Ok, get this straight, we are in a total war with all jihadists. Total war means that there are no non-combatants and that both societies are fully involved and available for conflict. The enemy has learned that uniforms are ineffective as organizing tools. The enemy attacks and performs logistics from behind civilian screens.

Finally, all morality and philosophy, no matter how valid, is irrelevant, if you don't win.

Whether you're bombing Dresden or Nagasaki, if it causes the enemy in any way to lose the will to fight, it is a legitimate exercise of total war.