Crime and war are two different things. War may be fought because a government refuses to recognize the valid claims of the United States to hold people accountable for crimes. People who cause us to go to war may be held accountable for "war crimes" if they fall into our hands as a result of waging war.
Our government has the resources and the sophistication to be able to manage this distinction. Failure to manage it properly has the potential to destroy us.
The political decision to support a corrupt South Vietnamese government caused the death of many tens of thousands of Americans. I don't wish to see the repeat of such a mess. And yet a lack of clarity with regard to who is the enemy and what is a crime could lead to very serious problems "ending" the war.
I’m afraid you lost me here. Was the attack on 9/11 a crime - in your opinion? Sort of a large scale version of a drive-by shooting? Was WW2 fought because the Japanese government failed to arrest the men of the fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor? Should our reaction to 9/11 be to send the NY Police department to arrest Osama Bin Laden and read him his Miranda rights? Can you write an intelligible sentence?
”Our government has the resources and the sophistication to be able to manage this distinction. Failure to manage it properly has the potential to destroy us.”
OK, you really did mean that we should have sent the cops rather than the military. You know, I think you would have been more comfortable with a Clinton/Gore administration. That was and would have been their reaction: calling for a UN resolution, sending the FBI over to Afghanistan to ask Mullah Omar to cooperate. Yep, that would have done the job. Meanwhile the assembly of the next terror weapon goes on.
”The political decision to support a corrupt South Vietnamese government caused the death of many tens of thousands of Americans. I don't wish to see the repeat of such a mess. And yet a lack of clarity with regard to who is the enemy and what is a crime could lead to very serious problems "ending" the war.”
A recent inhabitant of one of the more PC institutes of lack-of-learning I see. Your knowledge of history is flawed, your reasoning skills need work and your ability to articulate your thoughts will take a lot of work.