RETALIATORY AND PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKES ARE THE ANSWER

dfu | 9-12-01 | dfu

[doug from upland]

There was some initial joy on FR yesterday when reports came in about attacks on Kabul. We thought that President Bush sent a clear and decisive message very quickly. We now know that the attacks did not come from the U.S.

I hope that President Bush does not wait long for a reaction -- even if the actual perpetrator is not immediately hit. If we hit the wrong terrorist, so be it.

Our nation may be fortunate that biologicals were not brought aboard the highjacked flights or perhaps hundreds of thousands would now be dead. Someday we may have to face that sort of evil.

We have every right to strike in retaliation against those who sponsored the dastardly attack in New York and on the Pentagon. And we also have the right to strike any target that is in the planning stages.

We know where the terrorists train. We know who protects them. A strike that is massive and immediate against any of those targets is justified. They must pay a price even if they have not yet hit us.

We have the power. We have to use it. We have to use it without delay.

Although civil libertarians might start screaming, the following must also be implemented. It is time for some immediate racial profiling. Sorry, but I said it. It's what we are all thinking.

I feel badly for those good Americans of Mid Eastern heritage who loyally support this country. They are going to take some heat when they don't deserve it. We can help out. We need to immediately remove from this country all people of Mid Eastern heritage who are here on student visas, those with green cards and those here illegally. Sorry, but they do not have a constitutional right to be here. Many of them are part of terrorist cells and are planning more acts of terror this morning. Get them out of here now.

[Gargantua]

As politically incorrect and globally unpopular as this may be, America's military response must take out huge, significant strategic targets in Libya, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and anywhere else in the world that terrorists are allowed to hide and train.

America must make the world, Arab and otherwise, understand that, if this ever happens again, they will all pay... again. And again.

The greater the loss of life in these other countries, the better they will understand the clear message. Police your own, or pay more dearly than you are prepared to pay.

Any other resonse will be a sign of weakness, of ineffectual softness. We dare not be so perceived by the madmen of the world any longer. They need to know that we're the bullies with the nukes, and we'll fry them to paste if they even think of doing this again.

All of them.

In the Marines, the D.I. will make everyone do another 100 push-ups, or run another 5 miles, if any one of the platoon screws up. This way, all of the "boots" learn to watch, look after, and police one another.

It is the only way to stem this insanity. The message must be clear:

Allow terrorists to train on your soil, and you die. Period.

[Common Tator]

IF it is Bin Lauden and Afghanistan then we will be no more effective in missle attacks than Clinton was. We are not likely to be that effective with bombing attacks. I can only hope we have weapons that were not available to Clinton in 1998. For Clinton would have surely used them if we had them.

You remember that Bin Laudin took on the Soviet Union and defeated them when the Soviet Unions was at the height of its power. Back then Bin Lauden was on our side and we supplied him with technical support and missiles. He still has lots of the missiles.

I was briefed by a US Armey Colonel who was an adviser to Bin Lauden in his war against the Soviet Union. There are the remains of Russian planes and unrecoveded Russians all over Afghanistan. I was told that Afghanistan as a military problems was Vietnam times 10. I believe that to be true.

Armor is useless. There are few roads and they are in the valleys. The nation is nearly all mountains and the Laudin troops just shot from the Mountains onto the Russians in the valley with rifles. The Russians tried planes and copters. From rocky caves high on the side of very steep mountains the Afghanistan troops shot down Russian planes. He talked about how the Afghanistan women went into the valley after every attack to strip the remains from the Russian attack.

The solid rock of the very steep mountains make precision bombing next to impossible. The radar guided, and heat seaking bombs just do not work. They do not see through dozens of feet of rock to where the defenders are hiding.

Ben Laudin, if he is the guilty party, certainly considered our reaction. He is not dumb. He is not stupid. The Colonel who talked to me predicted in 1998, that Bin Lauden would attack the US. He did not know how or when. He told me it would be effective and unexpected. He said Bin Lauden would hit us at a weak point we had not considered. He was not confidant of our ability prevent it or to respond short of Nukes.

We need clear and creative thinking about how to retaliate. This is not a simple Kuwait style problem.

Afghanistan was the Soviet Unions Vietnam. They suffered a similar defeat. We need to react, but it will take a lot of brains to beat Bin Lauden.

We dare not underestimate bin Lauden. You can bet he has not underestimated us.