Following below, are some thoughts of mine on the topic of the terrorism we witnessed. I hope the old addage about "opinions" remains in check long enough for you to understand where I am coming from.

To those of you that know me a "ranting fool", yet read to the conclusion anyway, I say Thank you. I will entertain your response & your viewpoint in return.

To those that FLAME me personally, oh well, but please respond to the issues also. Name calling for it's own sake really is beneath us, although I took some liberties in that vein myself.

An Old Man's Thoughts on Revenge

We have heard essentially 2 types of response to Tuesdays horror, suggested by people that post here, and echoed in a myriad of other places. One camp supports a narrow target spectrum (identify & punish the bastards), while the other supports a more broad approach (kill them all, livestock too, & let God sort it out).

Well let's consider some facts:

The attack was a complete surprise carried out by brainwashed fanatics, while the "masterminds" cowered, hidden away in Asia. The attack was swift and precise in execution.

We, (society) have rightfully voiced an opinion, echoed by every rational being in the free world, of disgust and rage at this.

Naturally, what is to be done about it, is in the forefront of our thinking. Here is where the tough part comes in. There are several paths to choose in response.

The first is to develope a coalition with it's attending political framework, and political limitations, and then seek out the vermin that did this and inflict carnage upon the government that supported them.

The second is to identify and punish the parties involved and completely devastate the country as a punitave move, possibly to the point, as some have suggested, of nuclear means.

I want to point out some of the difficulties with each of these suggestions. A cowardly attack across the ocean, of people in buildings is a swift, one time effort, that is easier to engender, than our reprisal will be. The actual attack was carried out by a relatively few number of fanatics, supported by perhaps a hundred or so not directly involved on Tuesday.

What we are going to ask our military to do is much more difficult.

First we will need to establish the strategic objective.

Are we going to wage war against the terrorists only?
Are we going to wage war against the host country's military?
Are we going to wage war with the civilians & the military?
Are we going to scorch the earth?
What shall we do if we determine that the terrorists are not where we thought them to be? Will we conduct our operations in other countries also?

Once we decide this, lets see what is involved.

1. Seek out the people that did this & either bring them to justice, or kill them outright. This gets my vote, yet it is easier said than done. I suggest the terrorist planners are not were we would expect to find them. If I have done this, Afghanastan is the last place I would want to be right now. Still we need to act and we need to be relentless, and we need to be victorious. Just be aware that this sort of path will transcend many borders and claim many lives, theirs and ours.
OR

2. Land in the country that supported the terrorists, find them, and while you are at it, kill everyone else there as well. If we missed some, should we cross the border and carry on in that country as well, decimating that population for having been the terrorists' destination?

Many years ago, I served in the US Army (Armored Cavalry). (Vietnam Era). From my training & experience, I want to say this,
Killing enemy soldiers is the job a soldier is trained to do. It is our duty. I think we are going to discover that killing every one in a village, town or city, (military & civilian), is vastly different. Such action takes a long time, and differs from engaging one's enemy. When you suggest an army go in and make an entire country a "free fire zone", you are talking about sustained slaughter. And I think few have the stomach for this.

OR

3. Sit on board a ship, while we "toast the motherfuckers" with some nukes, and go in afterwards to mop up. Well, I would find this extreme. I cannot imagine wiping out entire populations, in order to make sure we "get guilty the ones". Will we know if we "got 'em all"? Shall we limit our attack to only one country? Or shall we make all of the Middle East glow in the dark?

Perhaps I am wrong, and if so, please enlighten me, but does the average Muslim peasant in Afghanastan, even know what the WTC was?
Shall we kill him for his ignorance?
Shall we kill him for his religious beliefs?
Shall we kill him because we don't like his manner of dress? How about we just kill him for the hell of it!!!
Let's capture him, kill his children, rape his women in front of him, and then shoot them all!
NOW THAT IS AN IDEA!!

To those that think me a nut, perhaps you're right, however if you hit me, I may, hit you back. But I won't go & wipe out your family, including the dog & goldfish.

I want to see the filth that attacked us on Tuesday, tortured & killed in public, with video at 11:00. Hell, I'll volunteer to assist. But wholesale slaughter of civilians at our hands, is as repugnant as the attack against us was. In fact, it would be worse, for it would be sanctioned, planned, supported, funded, and carried out by a government, OUR government. Afghanastan didn't attack us. Their bastard step child did.

Our intelligence services know when Putin takes a leak, there in the Kremlin. Let us find these terrorists, and shoot them on the spot, due process be damned! Burn them, have a fire pit to cast them into. Set the throngs upon them ala Benito Mussolini. Have a lottery to see who gets to pull the trigger,..... what ever you want.

But let us avoid killing babies.

Let us be righteous in our wrath, but just in our actions.
Let us "think", before we plunge into the abyss.

.02 worth?

Simeon

FLAME ON!