[kabar]

And after this symbolic bombing, do you think that the crew will be released?

Why didn't we bomb North Korea after they seized the USS Pueblo? Should Bush have threatened China after our recon plane was forced down and the crew held?

[rodguy911]

That may be true but you make the terrorists think twice about doing it again if they realize there is always a price to pay.

[MNJohnnie]

Yes. Because the simple fact of the matter is the thugs who run Iran are exactly COUNTING on the limp wrist ed diplomatic response from the West. These sorts of PR victories we continually grant the thugs by always going with the standard State Department play book response only encourages the thug's political base, discourages their domestic foes and gives them a sense that they CAN do this sort of crap and get away with it as often as they like.

On the other hand, if a credible demonstration is made that their personal asses are on the line, these thugs get a whole lot less bellicose. Between that, and hitting hard the instruments of repression such as secret police HQs, Revolutionary Guards bases etc. we could do ourselves a whole lot of good with the cause they have just handed us with their stupidity.

The very fact that they ARE a nation state means they do NOT have the ability to hide their leadership targets nearly as effectively as other terrorists.

The mistake would be to hit their refineries, bridges or population centers. Instead go after their instruments of repression.

Given the edge our technology gives us to hit their leadership targets openly and hard, we have a Military option that has never before been available.

Before the old standard was that we would NOT use the military option because the collateral damage would be counter productive on their domestic political scene.

NOW, with the technologies for in close urban combat that have been perfected over the last 4 years for fighting in Iraq, we can literally hit a particular office in a certain building while NOT damaging the elementary school next door in the least.

So for the 1st time in warfare, we CAN actively go after the leadership instead of the poor dumb grunts. It time to unleash that edge. What happened to Saddam was a good first step, but every lesson needs reinformcment. The thugs of the world need to know we can, and will, hit them personally if pushed to it.

[MNJohnnie]

Our plane collided with a Chinese fighter and was forced by damage to land. Chinese territory was the ONLY place it could land. It was NOT "forced down". The two situations were not even remotely similar and trying to create a false analogy between the two is absurd.

As for the North Koreans and the Pueblo, perhaps we would not some 40 years later still be in a state of near war with them IF ONE TIME, the State Department pukes thought about the problem instead of mindlessly reaching for the same failed playbook time after time after time after time.

How about THIS time we try something DIFFERNT in response to an open violent breach of International Law then patting the offending party on the head and buying them off?