Analysis: The Coming American Assault on Afghanistan

Beaufortcountynow.com ^ | September 15, 2001 | G. Dority

[Clinton's a rapist]

I don't doubt it. Anyway, now is not the time to get hung up on who-did-what-to-who-and-can-you-prove-it. Now, we go after them all, annihilate them all.

[arete]

Too much time and energy is being spent on bin laden as if he is the beginning and the end. Nothing could be further from the truth. I agree with you that we need to get them all, but we should also realize that it is Iraq that is the real enemy operating behind the scenes and pulling the strings. There will be no peace and no safety until Iraq is leveled.

Richard W.

[Jim Noble]

I am very concerned about the possibility of prepositioned nukes, being held in reserve until (perferred option) we use 'em first, or, (less good option) nonIslamic forces land in Afghanistan.

I have been on the fence about the issue of nuking the bastards, leaning against because of the threat.

[Jim Noble]

>>I don't know about interning all Arabs<<

I don't know about that either, but I do know that if we fail to intern ALL-and I do mean ALL-aliens who are "out of status" or without visas or other paperwork authorizing their presence here, we are asking for trouble.

[Clinton's a rapist]

I concur.

[Clinton's a rapist]

I have been on the fence about the issue of nuking the bastards, leaning against because of the threat.

Well, think about it. Suppose there are pre-positioned nukes in this country. I'm hopeful that there aren't, but let's suppose that are. Do you see a scenario where the folks who destroyed the World Trade Center and tried to destroy the Capitol and the White House on Tuesday would ever withdraw and dismantle those nukes? I certainly don't. Better they let them off now than catch us totally by surprise sometime in the future.

OTOH, in the more likely case that the terrorists are not yet able to deliver WMD on US soil, we do have an unprecedented window in which we have the focus and the societal will to tackle this problem once and for all. In the long run, we may consider ourselves fortunate that the terrorists' first strike, however horrific, was still on a scale that we can absorb and deal with. Imagine if the first strike had been a suitcase nuke&#8212remembering that we then would have every reason to believe that similar attacks could be launched throughout the country at the nod of some crazy Mullah. This attack may yet prove a blessing in disguise, provided only that we follow through with an appropriate response.

[Clinton's a rapist]

If we want to send a message to the world, kill a bunch of trainee terrorists, sterilize bin Laden's camps, give a heads up to the civilians to flee Kabul and Bahgdad, put the fear of God in the leadership, and leave the terrorists and the Taliban friendless and isolated, a large nuclear airburst (a few megatons) in the mountains could be a very nice way to start this whole operation off. If you get creative, I think there are a lot of ways that you can leverage the smorgasbord of nuclear weapons in our arsenal towards the larger war objectives.

[BigBobber]

Based on my extremely limited knowledge of nuclear weapons, I doubt that any are prepositioned in the U.S. right now. My understanding is these weapons are very easy to detect because of the radiation they emit. It would be very hard to smuggle them into the county. I think the most likely way to deliver them is on a ship or small boat, ala The Cole. I think that is why Navy ships, including an aircraft carrier, were stationed off NY following the air attack.

I think a much more likely second wave will use biological or chemical weapons, most likely directed against water supplies. I think the Arabic cells in this country are going to find it very hard to operate in the US for a while. They stick out like sore thumbs and Americans are very wary of Middle-eastern types right now.

After watching the attacks on Tuesday, no one should doubt these WOMD will be used by the Islamics if they become available.

[RandyRep]

Thank you to the poster and to all who are commenting on the article. I have seen nothing like this on TV to date. Nor read anything this frank in the mainstream press.

This type of thread is the absolute BEST part of FR, in my opinion. No flames, just opinions, freely given and commented upon. FR has enough breadth that many points can be expressed with authority and discussed back and forth. Keep up the good work!

Now, my comment as an armchair quarterback: I think that our major objective in this war will be to achieve control of the nukes and chem and bio weapons that ObL may have, plus the stuff that Saddam Hussein has. I expect that this may start in Afghanistan and end up in Iraq, perhaps simultaneously. I haven't seen much made of this aspect on TV yet.

With Iran positioned between Iraq and Afghanistan, are they going to sit back and then pick up the spoils at the end? Or are they going to cherry pick their time and place to grab territory or assets? This war may leave Iran with more weapons of mass destruction than the others.

[Clinton's a liar]

Thank you for the flag to this most informative piece. I really appreciate it.

I like your initial battle plan. I would also add a complete and recurring decimation of their poppy fields to cut off the money supply for years to come.

I'd also like to add that this piece does not sufficiently take into consideration the United States' extensive satellite capabilities.

If you're interested, I'd like to recommend a great book I'm reading right now, "bin Laden, The Man Who Declared War on America." It was published in 1999 by Prima Publishing. www.primalife.com

Phone number to order: (916) 632-4400.

It was written by Yosef Bodansky, Director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare. He's been following bin Laden since 1981.

It's an extremely informative book. It gives me great confidence in our human intelligence capabilities, now that we're actually paying attention. There are folks out there who will help us... we just have to get our act together.

I'm power reading this book right now, taking breaks to catch up on the news!

Thanks again. I'm going to forward this to a few folks I know from my military years.

[Biblebelter]

Our strategy in Vietnam did not work. Maybe we could recycle some of it here. Let's defoliate the poppy crop with some 21st century technology.

[supercat]

This type of thread is the absolute BEST part of FR, in my opinion. No flames, just opinions, freely given and commented upon. FR has enough breadth that many points can be expressed with authority and discussed back and forth. Keep up the good work!

I agree this sort of thread is interesting and is one of the more enjoyable aspects of FR. I would thus not want to forbid them. On the other hand, I WOULD ASK THAT ANYONE PRIVY TO SENSITIVE INFORMATION REFRAIN FROM POSTING ANYTHING--SPECULATIVE AS WELL AS FACTUAL--ON THESE THREADS lest their speculations allow others to infer what they actually know.