NICK BERG'S MURDER (A+ Op-ed)

You have an impression here that the people of that region are victims of the terrorist themselves and are not in mass participating in terror as the German people were backing the Nazi troops.

I am not sure what you mean, but I was responding to you stating we were taking back lands and fighting soldiers in uniforms. You said hit a military target. I was just stating we didn't just hit military targets in WWII we killed a lot of civilians to break the will.

I do not advocate killing a bunch of civilians but I think we can afford to play serious hardball with anyone who even thinks of defying us.

i am sure most people don't agree with cutting off heads in Iraq, but I bet you could find 100,000 who do.

100,000 would represent 1/300th of 1% percent and not a large number as a percentage of the population.

I think Germany and Japan had the people 100% behind the soldiers in their war against us.
I think here we have no where near that kind of backing of terrorists. There is fear of them, because when we were there before we left them to those beasts.

This is more difficult and I'd hate to see a population where 80% might be innocent killed to kill the guilty 20%.

Now if we could separate the two and evaporate the bad people, of course anybody would say go-for-it!

It's a tough war to prosecute.

I would disagree that there were 100% support for those regimes during WWII but thats another argument. My purpose in using the 100,000 number was to make a point. It is a small percent but still a lot of people. Its not like 2 or 3 thousand and my guess is their support is much greater than just 100,000. I would be willing to put money on the statement that there were at least 100,000 Germans who were against the Nazis but were fearful of them. I would bet it was far more than that. I can't say concerning the Japanese because I think they were more fanatical.

I would just like to see us wory less about shooting at mosques when they are attacking us from them. I would like to see us flatten a couple of them and build them back later. I think we give these guys way to much credit for their religious practices.

All that being said I think the military leaders have a good plan and are prosecuting the war to win it. They are on the ground and I have faith in them and Bush to do whats best and not whats politicaly convenient.

I would send in robotics after gassing if radicals go hide in a mosque.

That seems the way to go, and it must be made clear that using holy sites as a headquarters for terror and ammunitions will not by them a pass on response to that.

Roll some robots in after gassing them over and over in that situations. The filters in masks last only so many times.

Intelligence is the key to all this. Its a tough job up front and will need cool heads. We need to find the ring leaders, the opinion formers, the paymasters and the weapon weilders. And we need to be very, very calculated in targeting just them. When we take them out - the mob will see reason. If we radomly hit the mob the mob will grow.

Intel is key, but holding back does not get respect here. And Intel comes with respect. The Iraqis who would help us have to believe we will utterly destroy their enemies lest they come back for them. The population will ride the strongest horse (usama bin ladin quote) we must be that horse.

Every time we have used strength, contraty to what you say we have made progress. When we stop, show kindness, be willing to negotiate to save innocent lives, we are perceived as being weak. (Also our targets vanish in the night during such negotiations.) Perhaps it is because we don't randomly target, but the enemy hides behind the women and children. (Take these pictures, and release them.)

While I understand the need to wrap ourselves in the "high road" mantel, this war will be fought and won at the level of the side willing to go lowest. We unfortunatly should match their brutality. Leave bodies in the street, (dying with their guns and bombs in their hands.) Kill anyone who carries a weapon or walks after curfew in battle ground cities. Kill anyone tampering with the road side or oil lines or refineries. And finally, show photos of the insurgents firing from mosques etc to get the moderate religious leaders with us.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.