Letters to the Editor
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@Paul In KY
The impulse to bomb sovereign nations as retribution for the horrors of 9/11 is, even now, understandable.
(BTW dozens of Australians died in those attacks & scores more in Bali a year later, but I think the revulsion for that & other terrorist attacks was, and is, truly borderless.)
While I believe bin Laden/al Qaeda deserve the most ferocious justice imaginable, I seriously doubt that the wisdom of indiscriminate, collective punishment (ie bombing) of sovereign nations like Pakistan. For one thing it's patently unjust, for another it's profoundly counterproductive. Instead of defeating those responsible for 9/11, its unfairness acts as a powerful recruiting tool for precisely those organisations it seeks to destroy. While carpet-bombing Waziristan could very well kill bin Laden, its collateral damage would serve as a rallying cry for thousands more bin Ladens & al Qaeda foot soldiers, just as the war in Iraq has. Eliminating the authors of one atrocity might be satisfying, but creating a new army of atrocity authors is frankly, monumentally stupid.
Sometimes the first, most natural response, like violent vengeance, is the least effective in achieving what is actually desired, like retributive, proportional justice. The terrible tragedy of the nearly 3,000 lost in 9/11 has been used to justify a vastly greater, ultimately meaningless tragedy. Over 4,000 US soldiers, hundreds of thousands of Afghans & Iraqi civilians have died so far. Tens of thousands of US soldiers are greviously, lifelong wounded, millions of Iraqis are displaced refugees, and Middle East hatred for America, the motivation for 9/11, has never been more fervent. After 7 years, that's where the "head on the pike", bin Laden as supervillain, strategy has led the world: angrier, more dangerous, more divided than ever.
Obama with his theoretic "Bomb Pakistan" policy advocates more of the same. McCain wants to double him on steroids in Iran. Clinton acts tough but diplomatically avoids "broadcasting" her, presumably bellicose, intentions. Given the choice between a naive blowhard, an apocolyptic warmonger & a cynical diplomat, I know which one I'd be choosing.
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Ondelette
Thanks. I'm reading your reponse as I pose another question, and as I do, defer to your expertise because it seems obvious that you've lived in Pakistan, or have done business there somehow over a period of time.
Also, in my ignorance, I will concede to some "ugly Americanism" in the sense that the Pak masses might seem to me to be "lumpen prols."
Obviously, in order to develop such weapons and to provide some modicum of democratic government, even if it has authoritarian tendencies in a formal military way, there is an elite that can make things work.
Yet, in your analysis of the vote the other day, you suggested turnout was low - maybe only around 30 percent. And, if I got it right, you said perhaps 60 percent or more of the population as a whole is illiterate.
So ... ?
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Iran supreme leader advisor: Israel faces 'certain death'
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3509604,00.html
About time! Someone's got to do it!
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Always difficult to extricate...
the desire for a foreign policy based on American interests fairness and even handedness (something we used to be know for at least attempting) from outright anti-semitism or just the misguided foreign policy based on the needs of one or two small countries in the ME. One with oil and one with a religion we like better.
But what do I know. Perhaps it was one of Glenn's detractors trying to fill his comments with antisemitism for Glenn's critics to focus on.
I'm pretty sure that was a joke. People are very pissy lately. Silly Season.
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Re: Obama with his theoretic "Bomb Pakistan" policy
Is that what he said? Did he say that he would bomb Pakistan?
Now we can assume that tactical air strikes of a particulary surgical, localized and limited nature aimed at al-Qaeda assets in the FATA would be involved, but this is not the fire bombing of Dresden. You may not like it but it is what it is. It's not even Guernica.
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Hey Dan
Thank you for your response. I think you are putting words in Sen. Obama's mouth when you say 'carpet bomb Waziristan'. I understand that is what one would expect from our current administration.
I can tell you that Pres. Obama's approach would be oh so much more nuanced & elegant than that. I do not favor any carpet bombing of any nation that we are not engaged in a WWII style war with (and I'm sure Sen. Obama would also feel this way).
At most, I think Sen. Obama would contemplete some kind of Entebbe style raid the Israelis pulled off in Uganda. It could also involve sending some cruise missiles into his cave.
I know Pres. Obama won't allow some murdering psycho to jeer at us from his 'safe' hideout (like Pres. Cookoo McBatshit has) without making an extraordinary effort to bring him to justice.
P.S. Is Coopers considered a good Australian beer?
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RSS feed broken
I'm no longer able to read your articles in my RSS reader -- I get a message about javascript being required.
Is there any way you can fix this?
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McCain will win...
...19% of the vote in the general.
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He most certainly is...
Hey Dan
Thank you for your response. I think you are putting words in Sen. Obama's mouth when you say 'carpet bomb Waziristan'...
Iran supreme leader advisor: Israel faces 'certain death'
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3509604,00.html
About time! Someone's got to do it!
--Anonymous
Apparently not a jokester.
Ynet news is a "tabloid".
They appear to be bragging about being banned by Google.
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Juan Cole
These remarks were aimed at Barack Obama, and they are lies. McCain has repeatedly made this false charge, warning against sending troops to Waziristan. But Obama never advocated invading Pakistan with US ground troops. He said that the US should strike at al-Qaeda if it had actionable intelligence about its whereabouts in Pakistan, even if the Pakistani authorities refused to give permission.
This stance is US policy. In fact, George W. Bush implemented it with a Predator attack on an al-Qaeda leader in Pakistan just a couple of weeks ago, an attack that the Pakistani government declined to authorize. (Kevin Hayden concurs).
http://www.juancole.com/
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Ché Pasa
-This should be an Opportunity for the Obama campaign to skewer and rattle the Bullshitting Old Geezer six or seven ways before sun up, but so far they seem to be holding their fire.-
They are conserving bullets to be expended when the moment is right to Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb McCain.