In response to young Jerry:
Jer, jer, jer, a thousand times Jer.
First off, all flag waving aside, I understand the whole Good vs. Evil premise of American military involvement. I also understand the basics of War, the first of which is to have a clear definition of your enemy. I don't feel as if we have that yet. ("Terroists and those that harbor them" or certain regimes is not an enemy.) Plus, stopping bin Laden will not stop the hatred that these fundimentalist whacko's feel towards America, it will only strenghten it and get more of us killed. Destroying terrorist-condoning regimes will not stop the terrorists, it will only make them more determined to kill more of us. These people feel that to die for their cause in a suicide mission, is to be promised a glorious spot in Heaven as a hero. They will gladly sacrifice themselves for a cause which we find insane. They feel about Americans even stronger feelings than I feel about Pro-Choice people.
Second, I understand history. We won WWII. We lost in Korea. We lost in Viet Nam. Both times, I feel, we lost because we underestimated and didn't define our enemy clearly enough. These suicidal freaks clearly defeated the Russians for 10 years during the 80's. You may recall that during the 80's there was a little thing called The Cold War. Both the US and the Russians were thumping our collective chests and puoring money into our separate war chests. I would say that at this time, the Russians were at the height of their military effectiveness. And they got their asses kicked by these people.We lost Korea because we were cocky and assumed that Good always triumphs over Evil. And it did, until the Chinese showed up at least. We weren't alone in Korea either, there were 21 other countries with us. However, as usual, the brunt of the fighting and subsequent dying was done by Americans. The same thing goes for Viet Nam. We underestimated our enemy and got our asses kicked in the dirt. It always sounds like a just and noble cause, Good vs. Evil. But, when the 50,000th American flag draped coffin gets unloaded off the C-41 Transport plane and we are virtually no closer to accomplishing our "objective," it gets harder and harder to justify sending another son to die.
There is another similarity to Korea and Nam that this current scenario shares. Before both the Korean conflict and the Viet Nam War, we had Democratic Presidents that drastically cut Defense spending. Then, a Republican President had to use the weakened military to get our asses kicked. Truman gave a weak Defense to Ike to go have McAurthur make an ass of himself. Then, to fund their amazingly effective social reform programs (Welfare/The Great Society) Kennedy and LBJ gave a pussified Military and the Viet Nam War to Nixon to lose. Now, Clinton has virtually decimated the US military for 8 years and given it to Dubya.
Now, Americans feel collectively threatened and want a piece of someone's ass as retribution. That is understandable. We feel that we are the Good fighting Evil. That is understandable. We feel that our cause is Right and their's is Wrong and I'm agreeing with that. All I am saying is that I do not feel as though we have a clearly enough defined objective and enemy or a good enough appreciation of the resolve of the enemy and the stupidity that they are willing to die for. Bombing them into the Stone Age is not that far of a trip and probably will have no effect on the American civilian casualties that they will martyr themselves to kill. Don't get me wrong, at this point, I think that some type of military attack will be good for some things.
Gary Condit, for example. Good for him. (I am shocked that Mr. & Mrs. Levy went away so easily.) Good for the Economy. Nothing like a little War to stimulate some spending. But I digress. More later.
Jer, jer, jer, a thousand times Jer.
First off, all flag waving aside, I understand the whole Good vs. Evil premise of American military involvement. I also understand the basics of War, the first of which is to have a clear definition of your enemy. I don't feel as if we have that yet. ("Terroists and those that harbor them" or certain regimes is not an enemy.) Plus, stopping bin Laden will not stop the hatred that these fundimentalist whacko's feel towards America, it will only strenghten it and get more of us killed. Destroying terrorist-condoning regimes will not stop the terrorists, it will only make them more determined to kill more of us. These people feel that to die for their cause in a suicide mission, is to be promised a glorious spot in Heaven as a hero. They will gladly sacrifice themselves for a cause which we find insane. They feel about Americans even stronger feelings than I feel about Pro-Choice people.
Second, I understand history. We won WWII. We lost in Korea. We lost in Viet Nam. Both times, I feel, we lost because we underestimated and didn't define our enemy clearly enough. These suicidal freaks clearly defeated the Russians for 10 years during the 80's. You may recall that during the 80's there was a little thing called The Cold War. Both the US and the Russians were thumping our collective chests and puoring money into our separate war chests. I would say that at this time, the Russians were at the height of their military effectiveness. And they got their asses kicked by these people.We lost Korea because we were cocky and assumed that Good always triumphs over Evil. And it did, until the Chinese showed up at least. We weren't alone in Korea either, there were 21 other countries with us. However, as usual, the brunt of the fighting and subsequent dying was done by Americans. The same thing goes for Viet Nam. We underestimated our enemy and got our asses kicked in the dirt. It always sounds like a just and noble cause, Good vs. Evil. But, when the 50,000th American flag draped coffin gets unloaded off the C-41 Transport plane and we are virtually no closer to accomplishing our "objective," it gets harder and harder to justify sending another son to die.
There is another similarity to Korea and Nam that this current scenario shares. Before both the Korean conflict and the Viet Nam War, we had Democratic Presidents that drastically cut Defense spending. Then, a Republican President had to use the weakened military to get our asses kicked. Truman gave a weak Defense to Ike to go have McAurthur make an ass of himself. Then, to fund their amazingly effective social reform programs (Welfare/The Great Society) Kennedy and LBJ gave a pussified Military and the Viet Nam War to Nixon to lose. Now, Clinton has virtually decimated the US military for 8 years and given it to Dubya.
Now, Americans feel collectively threatened and want a piece of someone's ass as retribution. That is understandable. We feel that we are the Good fighting Evil. That is understandable. We feel that our cause is Right and their's is Wrong and I'm agreeing with that. All I am saying is that I do not feel as though we have a clearly enough defined objective and enemy or a good enough appreciation of the resolve of the enemy and the stupidity that they are willing to die for. Bombing them into the Stone Age is not that far of a trip and probably will have no effect on the American civilian casualties that they will martyr themselves to kill. Don't get me wrong, at this point, I think that some type of military attack will be good for some things.
Gary Condit, for example. Good for him. (I am shocked that Mr. & Mrs. Levy went away so easily.) Good for the Economy. Nothing like a little War to stimulate some spending. But I digress. More later.
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