Posted on 06/22/2004 10:13:48 AM PDT by kattracks
The S. Korea government has confirmed the hostage has been killed. His body has been recovered.
I don't believe a word you say. Your "good bud"'s comments are grossly atypical of the feedback from Marines and soldiers universally received, and reported, by other Freepers and from news accounts.
Which Marine outfit is your "good bud" serving with in Baghdad?
If the ROK's today are cut from the same cloth as the one's who served in Vietnam, it might get interesting in Iraq.
If they let our troops fight a war, as opposed to "nation building", they would take care of business quickly.
Things are rarely as they seem, and all the more so in the world of commercial news. There's always a reason for everything. Sometimes it's obvious, sometimes it's not, and sometimes it's deliberately concealed. If a story doesn't seem to make sense, it's probably because the rationales behind it are unknown.
That's my personal playground, trying to find those hidden rationales. Sometimes I'm a million miles off-base, but usually I get some of it right, and every once in a while, I manage to nail it. But regardless of how accurate it may be, I always find a great deal of satisfaction by coming up with explanations for events that make sense to me.
In approaching the plot, like a mystery writer, I try to start at the end of the story and work backwards, applying the motivations of the characters in ways that make sense to each of them. And like classic mystery novels, a seemingly irrational news story challenges us to use our finely-honed wits to solve the puzzle.
What could be more fun than that?
(Hmm, I think I'll add this blurb to my blog. Imal: private detective, mystery writer, adventurer... 8^)
You ask a lot of good questions, and I am grateful to say that I am not in a position to be able to provide authoritative answers to any of them. However, there are some general principles you can apply when attempting to understand how intelligence operations, and the War on Terrorism in general, are run.
First and foremost, you never let your enemy know how much you know. If they know that, they can effectively predict what you'll do next, and that usually means you'll be defeated. It is best to have your enemy think you're incompetent and stupid, because they will then take actions, based on that assumption, that will fail. That's the reason why most people think the CIA is incompetent: because the CIA wants us to think they're incompetent. Our President's enemies think he's an idiot, and he deliberately cultivates that sentiment, to their eternal dismay. In fact, the CIA and President Bush are very far from being incompetent, but the illusion holds, to their continuing advantage.
Second, you don't let your enemy know what you're doing. That means not issuing a press release when you conduct operations. If you have Al Jazeera staked out, their mail being intercepted, their phones tapped, sniffers on their networks, tracking devices on their cars and bicycles, keystroke loggers in their computers, bugs and cameras in their offices, all these things in their homes and restaurants where they eat, your own personnel in their staff, etc, YOU DON'T ADVERTISE IT. If you and I knew about these things, then Al Jazeera and Al Qaeda would as well, and would take steps to remove these assets. That is one reason why we will let some terrorists get away, rather than compromise "sources and methods". The cost should never exceed the benefit
Which brings us to why we haven't caught some terrorists (and sympathizers), and even let some others go "back into the wild". Think of a terrorist group like an ant colony. If you just kill some ants, more will replace them. But if you kill the queen, the colony dies. So you follow the ant trail back to the nest, but the queen is deeply concealed (perhaps inside a kitchen wall behind your custom cabinets) and hard to kill directly. So you give the worker ants some poisoned bait, and let them carry it into the nest.
It may take more time and patience to do this than to just kill some workers, and all the while they're rummaging through your kitchen cabinets, but the end result is no more queen, no more ant colony, and no more ants. An alternative, tearing out the cabinets and the wall to get the queen, may be quicker, but not necessarily a better solution.
The truth is that if the leaders of Al Qaeda, its affiliated groups and its spiritual and financial sponsors actually knew what they were up against, they would know true despair. As it is, they are not enjoying care-free lives. They are in constant fear -- terror, if you will -- and know that betrayal, capture or death can come at any time, from any direction.
Also, don't make the mistake of thinking Osama is our ultimate target. He's just one part of a much larger problem. There are many terrorist colonies, each with their own queens. We want them all, including their oil-rich benefactors and spiritual leaders, and we will get them all, too.
Have faith. We will win, but only if we're more patient and persistent than our enemies. And they are very patient, and very persistent.
All of them, then there will be no need to "understand". Of course by then it's too late.
The best way to end war and ensure peace is to kill the enemy.
In what eighth grade? we studied that the Romans grew fat and lazy and were conquered by Bararians. You wondered how that could happen. Wonder no more because it is happening in front of our eyes. While we should be fighting for our lives we unfortnately are more interested in J-lo's love life. Americans need a good kick in the butt. One would have thought that 9/11 would have accomplished that but it didn't. Even the beheadings are a one day news cycle. Nobody seems to care.
Thanks, you are right.
I do have faith that we are winning over there. I just get impatient. I'd like to see hints of this in the news but never do.
It's agonizing for me as well, and difficult to accept the idea that "no news is good news", but that's the way it is in the spook business.
But rest assured, we are not sitting on our hands.
Interesting survey question for your neighborhood Muslims here in the US: "What do you think about beheading people?"
I know it's politically incorrect to be so blunt, but I know some people who have been doing it. The reactions are a little shocking: smiles, laughing...anything but contrition or "isn't that terrible"
I thought at least they would get a "that doesn't represent Islam" but no dice.
**I would ask, that people see their side, to a POINT also. If we don't understand the enemy...Then we will lose this war.**
Hello mizzmouse.
You are much kinder than I in wanting to further see "their" side. I do not need to hear AQ' or UBL's rantings to understand they hate America and at this point - I don't care why, do you? Not to mention the rabble-rousing AJ provides for new recruitments. Could you tell me what is to "understand" here about them that we don't already know at this point?
My feelings about AJ do not relate to the hostages although AQ is using the media well in that respect. My anger is a result of watching the ignorant Arab in the street listening to the rants and never hearing another side. Think of it as we Americans with the New York Times as our sole means of news and propaganda.
Forgiveness is up to God.
It's our job to arrange the meeting...
The good news is that the Korean military will not give a rip what the crybaby populace at home thinks of their tactics and rules of combat. They are at least free to do what is neccessary to show Islam the force that is required to beat them. When you capture one Al-Q or supporter, you torture him until he gives you the info you need to kill the others. Quite simple really. The way you win in the Islamic world is to play as dirty as it takes to clean house fast--and the populace will get in line quick out of fear. Covering a whole street with dismembered Al-Q fighters body parts is a good place to begin, people get the message that way. Don't want to fight like that, you say? Then get out of the Middle-East (and Asia, for that matter) for good because that's how it is done over there. And you can't hide back here, because they are already here too. There isn't anywhere to hide and it is better to fight them, and kill them while wrecking their property. Oh, and getting a well-deserved reputation for greasing hostile journalists is always a good thing, keeps the flies off your back.
Having served in Korea and seeing the ROK army train and fight, I plead with Mr. Bush to just take the handcuffs off of the ROK soldiers. In my opinion, the ROK are, pound for pound, the toughest SOB's in the world. They would hunt down and rip the guts out of the bastards who oppose them. And they really don't give a rat's a$$ if anyone protests.
God Speed Men.
John Danforth
SSgt USA (Ret)
ummm....now I'm worried - I comprehended everything you said.....more insight into how a good mind works. You have a new fan here even if we disagree about the worth of Al Jazeera. :o)
The Korean troops are tough. If the ROK Marines are sent then Al-Qaida can stand the .... by. The do not play by the PC rules that American troops must put up with.
You can darn well bet that the Koreans will feed those body parts to the hogs or dogs.
Good comments bump!
Tell you buddy that I- and a whole lot more Americans- agree with him. One American life is worth more than every Iraqi- every Muslim- in my opinion. I would have had our people home the day after we had Saddam and most of the Mid-East would be glass by now. No hesitation, and no guilt.
Tell him to stay safe, will you? And that his anger is ours.
Oh please! If my ego ever sees that post, I'll never hear the end of it!
And thanks. ;^)
Turning a mortal enemy into a staunch ally is never easy. Postwar Germany and Japan were plagued with problems that are so readily forgotten with the passage of time, but pacifying and helping to rebuild these countries was the right thing to do, for America.
Our President cannot openly reveal the U.S. strategy for the Middle East because to do so would cost uncountable American lives. F.D.R. did not announce U.S. war plans publicly, either. But it is a good strategy and, unlike so many strategies past, it is not an expedient, but a long-term vision that solves difficult, lingering, previously insoluble problems and eliminates dangerous threats to our nation once and for all.
Standing on Omaha Beach on D-Day, so many years past, it was not possible to see the liberation of Europe and the defeat of Nazi Germany, only the death, suffering and sense of tragedy among our troops. It was an awful and costly day. But it was only the beginning of the valiant and bloody ground battle to take back western Europe that the Allies would eventually win. So it is today in Iraq.
As this strategy unfolds and bears fruit, America will look back on the work that has been done in Afghanistan and Iraq and marvel. We will see how that work has directly protected our nation and set the stage for a much brighter future for us all. And we will never forget those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to achieve this.
If that's not worth fighting for, nothing is.
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