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

NY Post ^

[onyx]

Want link?
See your FR mail.

[A CA Guy]

In WW2 soldiers war uniforms and we were taking back lands that were taken by the enemy.

Here you have a terrorist population among a civilian population and they are not nice enough to identify who they are for us.

I do not think if Saddam was still there that you would say kill 100,000 innocent Iraqi's to get Saddam. Makes no sense to me.

We need to blow a military target, any non-civilian target now...

[onyx]

I'll not cut CBS nor Hackworth any slack.
The military had every right and every reason
to investigate the so-called prison abuse without
the biased media airing a half-baked story.

The murderous coward in the ski mask praised allah
and claimed retaliation. OK, on this I'll take his word.

[backhoe]

"Can you post a link to the video?"

Plenty here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1133927/posts
The Berg Beheading- some links
various FR links | 05-12-04 | The Heavy Equipment Guy

[Ben Chad]

The left would rather win the 2004 election than the war in Iraq. That's "what happened".

Weegee, wouldn't this include the majority of republicans currently in office?

[onyx]

Name them.

[NutCrackerBoy]

Madrid train-bombing was 3/11.

[onyx]

Well, there you go.
Thanks for the info.
Seems like a fascination with 11 doesn't it?

[Cap Huff]

"if he started the carpet bombing tomorrow"

What would the targets be?

[Steel and Fire and Stone]

On September 21st, and again later, on November 6th, 2001, President Bush took the couragous step of leadership unseen in the White House for years, maybe decades. He stated, quite simply:

"Over time it's going to be important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity. You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror."

President Bush has been bold, consistent, and resolute, in his application of force during this "War on Terror". He has not been particularly forthcoming regarding who this "Terror" is that we are at war with. He has been loath to say "Islam", so the term "Jahidists" was coined somewhere up in "spin central" at the White House. I believe he has avoided identifying our "enemies" most Muslims, and Muslim nation-states in the world, both as strategic moves and compassionate action.

1. Strategically, while al'Qaeda sympathies and anti-American fervor is shared by a significant minority, and perhaps majority of Muslims in the world, it does U.S. interests no good to alienate the rest of the Muslims in the world. There are many who do not share the Wahabi world view of Islamic domination by force, who might desire a more free, democratic vision of an Islamic republic, and they can be useful in this war.

2. Bush is a Christian man who count not countenance the scapegoating and persecution that might be dealt out to innocent Muslims, or even al'Qaeda sympathizers in the West. That's not "who American's are".

However, in the end, what matters is who wins or loses, or how many casualties the U.S. and our coalition partners take at home and in the field. If President Bush or Powell's State Department cannot subordinate the interests of Muslims to our own civilians and military personnel, we will not win the war.

Faluja, for example, must be completely flattened, if it is not too late. Women and children can leave the city, and enter camps until they can be documented. Men can leave if they surrender all arms; they too will enter separate camps, to be further segregated, identified, and documented. Those who choose not to leave the city will be buried there, with as little loss of life to our Marines as possible.

When the al'Qaeda terrorists have been killed or imprisoned, we can use Iraqi oil money to build a new Faluja, if we so choose.

THAT is a "serious" response to the war being waged upon us via proxies such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and perhaps Syria and Iran. Arabs respect strength, and in the case of the U.S.A., that is the only thing they respect or fear about America. But they also feel their god, Allah, the god of the murderers of innocents, is greater than the U.S.A., that we will collapse due to our own corruption. And, they are more than willing to give us a push, by killing as many American's as possible.

The Bush Administration needs to stand back, and assess exactly WHAT the U.S. priorities are in this war. Nation building and Democracy? Sure, that's fine, but not at "any cost" in American lives and treasure.

American interest must always come first, or the U.S. government will forfeit legitimacy in the eyes of Americans, and more importantly our many enemies in this World. If the U.S. government is ambivalent about the murder of Americans, e.g. it's just a "cost of doing business", the cost of war, then why should terrorists feel differently. The maniac leading those five murders might indeed be ignorant, but American must act in a way that has saner Muslims quaking in their sandals. When the U.S. states that "retribution will be swift and certain", it had better execute --- immediately. What's the life of one American worth? A mosque? A city? A city of terrorists?

Bush and his team had better figure out the math, and convincingly sell that "cost" to our enemies. The terrorists do have "interests" we can damage. Mecca and Medina? A few precision weapons could reduce those sites to ashes. Saudi oil fields? The same fate, on the same day as the U.S. opens the Alaskan oil reserves to aggressive and rapid development. Are Syria and Iran supporting insurgents with weapons or fighters (neither "grow on trees")? There are appropriate targets of interest to which we can apply "force".

American is at war. We are under sustained attack. We must respond in meaningful ways; we must carry the war to the enemies. Or we will lose.

SFS

[Iscool]

This is war in the middle east...That's how they fight a war...Ought to be a law against that...They should be made to fight the way we do...

When we blow their arms and legs off (and heads), it should be done honorably...With a cameraman available if possible...

I'm being sarcastic of course...But like recent American wars, someone has determined that the media and politicians should direct these wars...We then watch the "war" news like it's a Monday Night Football Game...Except no one shoots the ref for making a wrong decision...

A little sense of reality once in a while may be good for the American spirit...

[familyop]

"What happened?"

Well, looking at military history, it takes a lot of oil for continuous security air sorties over several countries and mechanized pursuits of several armies. If we put them in their places, the extra costs will go away and not until then. We're paying for the Clintonistas' neglect. We were about to be pounced on when they left office.

Wars cost lots of oil, money and other things. How far are we really ready to go? If we, as a country, have the guts, humility and will to do without a lot of things and work harder than we are accustomed to working, we can do it. We can put a few threats down and have a world that's much more respectful toward us, our kids and grandkids.

What happened? It might be about to happen. We'll watch and see.

[teletech]

Daniel Pearl was 3-11?
Nick Berg 5-11.

They will skip 7-11 because to many of their relatives in the USA are running a business by that name.

Lets avenge the butcher murder of Nick Berg with an OVERWHELMING destructive force. We said we would never negotiate with terrorists. We've broken that promise and look where it got us!

[alloysteel]

This was never about the price of petroleum products, else we would have mounted our army on the southwest border of the US, taken over Mexico, and forced them to rewrite their Constitution to include basic rights to land ownership and a guarantee of personal freedom they cannot now enjoy in their native land, necessitating their clandestine emigration to a foreign country.

With the rewritten Constitution, it would be possible for petroleum companies to do the necessary exploration and development of the vast petroleum resources that Mexico is sitting on, but refuses to make available for the economic benefit of its own citizens.

[Barney Gumble]

Good post. Obviously Bush isn't going to attack the religion of Islam. That is not sane. However, he does need a REAL "swift response." Today and tomorrow will be defining points for him. Will he become a man of words or will he be a man of deeds?

Faluja, for example, must be completely flattened, if it is not too late.

Exactly. If Muslims use holy cities as defensive positions, they can't be that holy.

I had admired Bush for pressing on with his beliefs in spite of adversity and the leftist media. However, recently, I think he's been slipping. Is the 2004 election too close? I really hope Bush will take a fierce response or my confidence in him will slip.

If we are not prepared to do what it takes to win the war, we should never have gotten involved. If our floundering continues, Iraq WILL be a quagmire and WILL turn into a Vietnam.

[DustyMoment]

This war cannot be waged with half-measures.

It can end only with the total annihilation of those who practice butchery and barbarism.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! The Muslim terrorists have demonstrated that they can't be treated with civility or compassion. Their entire frame of reference is rooted in the barbarism of the 13th Century - so, let's give them a 13th Century response that they will understand . . . annililate Fallujah; convert it into the world's first and largest camel parking lot. Then, turn Mecca and Medina into glazed, glowing parking lots that will be uninhabitable by ANY living creature for the next several thousand years. If the Muslim vermin STILL want a piece of us after that, we'll be more than happy to deliver it - smoking ruin by smoking ruin.

Barbarians can't be negotiated with - they can only be defeated by annihilation. So, let's start the annihilation so that the remainder of civilized human beings on earth no longer have to fear these representatives of the "religion of peace". A "religion" that preaches barbarism, hate, murder, slavery and oppression. Kill it now, before it kills us.

[onyx]

They will skip 7-11 because to many of their relatives in the USA are running a business by that name.




You bad. :)

[iconoclast]

Saddam planned and executed an insurgency.

Yep, good thing we rooted him out of that sophisticated underground war room of his.

[Brit_Guy]

Barney.

One question that bugs me though is we are all itching to do the terrorists in but how do you spot a terrorist? Do we just presume that everyone with olive skin who attends mosques in Iraq is 'with them' and fair game targets for our superb weaponary? Makes our taking retributions a hell of a lot easier if we do. Not sure it wins us the war though.

Conventional troops always face a nightmare in unconventional guerilla wars. The temptation when we were on patrol in Northern Ireland was simply to presume that everyone in a catholic area was 'one of them' and would kill you as soon as look at you. If we treated them as such, they obviously acted as 'one of them'. There was no political appetite to go and wipe 'them' out. So we got in a circle without end.

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.

[Amelia]

The plan was to march on Bagdad, shock & awe until Saddam was killed or ran to Syria or somewhere, Have a parade, install Chalabi as Shah of Iraq...What happened?

IMO, the major problem is twofold - Iraqis have no experience with democracy and/or self-government, and Americans expect an instant solution to every problem.

Expecting the Iraqis to be instantly capable of self-government is like expecting the same from a group of middle school students. Ever read Lord of the Flies?

We Americans expect all problems to be solved and neatly wrapped up in a space of weeks, or at most, months. Life isn't a sitcom, and things rarely happen that way. We occupied Germany for nearly a decade after WWII, and we still have troops in Germany, Japan, and Korea 50+ years on.

More realistic expectations would be a good start.