nakedthinker
Posts: 39
Joined: 1/23/2007 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: TheHeretic That's quite the false choice you are throwing out there, Nake. Do you actually have such a narrow world view, or do you just think you'll get away with defining all the options? I'll play along for a minute. Tell me, what cultural shifts do you think might occur here in the States as we toss generation after generation to their deaths, and the savings of everyone trying "fix" a place where they like it broken? As far as cultural changes in the United States, you have to realize that Al Quada has already forced us to have cultural changes. For example, no more leaving the country and coming back in unless you first obtain a passport, and no more seeing your loved one off at the airport gate, etc. Trival inconveniences such as that are just the tip of the iceberg. Simply put, Americans don't get the option of not changing our culture in SOME manner to react to the activities of Al Quada. By just walking away from a country (Afghanistan) where a large part of the country is not controlled by Afghan central government, we ARE on the path to some major attacks against our country. If we want to continue to pretend that if we just leave our current military involvements, and ignore Al Quada (hoping that they will go away and leave us alone), it is only a matter of time before Iran makes nuclear weapons, and someone from Al Quada obtains one from Iran or Pakistan or even North Korea. Al Quada will not negotiate (unless we agree to scrap our entire way of life in favor of their thoughts on the matter), and will never stop at anything to destroy western civilization. They would not hesitate to use any type of weapon against us which they can obtain. As for preventing generations of American soldiers from getting killed in Afghanistan, given sufficient force inside of Afghanistan to actually search or seal every cave in Afghanistan (just as we had to do in World War II to take those islands away from the Japanese), we would find that many of the enemy combatants in Afghanistan would be discovered and then captured or killed. We are not even close to having enough people in Afghanistan to be able to do this. Clearly, because neither Al Quada or Taliban fighters wear uniforms (as the Japanese did), they have the advantage of being able to blend into the peaceful civilian population. However, it is still easy to spot the guys carrying AK-47s and mortars on the street, and any sane civilian not looking for a firefight would understand that such behavior is inappropriate in the face of an American occupation. You also have to realize that just as in Iraq, many enemy combatants in Afghanistan are actually fence sitters, and they will change sides very quickly, or just go home, if they sense that their side is losing. Give those people a reason to stop fighting (like the ability to earn a living and have a normal life), and they will in fact just go home and stop fighting. That would not totally stop the loss of American soldiers, but it would greatly reduce it. As far as other options, if you have what you think is a better suggestion, feel free to suggest it. Did I simplify the available options? Sure... there ARE some other choices that I ignored. For instance, we COULD just irradiate the entire country of Afghanistan with radiation that would make the whole country permanently uninhabitable. However, I thought that killing 28 MILLION Afghans would not justifiable, and also would not help our interests in winning the hearts and minds of the rest of that region.
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