Letters to the Editor
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Another reason why McCain advocates air power...
...is because he was a pilot in the Vietnam war, one of the pilots who bombed North Vietnamese targets.
McCain is dangerous with a capital D, not to mention just plain stupid. Like Bush, who gave Osama bin Laden everything a terrorist could wish for, McCain will give the insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan exactly what they want: increased, manic efforts to eradicate them that will result in increased civilian casualties, increased damage to population centers. As a result, the insurgents will win the war of ideas when they are no longer seen as the enemies of peace but as defenders against an awesome bully (as in David and Goliath).
It's exactly how the Russians lost in Afghanistan. If we should be studying any war for clues on how to proceed, it should be that one, not Vietnam.
Moreover, the US understanding of who exactly the "terrorists," our enemies are in this war is, just as in Vietnam, sorely deficient and remarkably obtuse. Our enemy is Al-Qaida, a deadly but diffuse and loosely connected organization of sworn emenies of the US. However, we are fighting them in a place where they are able to bulk up their slim numbers by recruiting in population centers that are sympathetic to their cause. What makes them sympathetic to Al-Qaida's cuase? We do, with precisely the kinds of Vietnam War strategies that McCain advocates.
It's a vicious circle!