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Re: Clobberin' Time...

Cryofax
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SubjectRe: Clobberin' Time...
FromCryofax
Date09/19/2001 05:12 (09/18/2001 20:12)
Message-ID<423506ec.0109181912.16491534@posting.google.com>
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Newsgroupsrec.arts.sf.starwars.misc
FollowsOliver J. Hanau
"Oliver J. Hanau" <ojh@gmx.net>wrote in message news:<9o87f4$bq1qq$1@ID-35218.news.dfncis.de>...

Oliver J. Hanau
Cryofax wrote:

Cryofax
You can't seperate the civilians from the rest of the country.

Oliver J. Hanau
I'm sorry, but that's bullshit. Even in democracies, Joe Average has little influence on what the government does, except in very broad terms. With other forms of government it might just be of matter of what country you're born into.

I'm not saying we specifically go after civilians, but that some might bite it while we punish a country that helps terrorists. Are you suggesting we target only military and government installations (usually at least some civilians in there too)? Perhaps not a bad idea. Some way to make a country unwilling to help terrorists without affecting too many who really had little to do with it.

I'm not some "nuke 'em all" heartless bastard, nor am I looking at "revenge" as the end-all to this thing. I think our goal should be as stated by Bush so far, to "eliminate the evil-doers" (okay he's a little melodramatic) in other words try to make a serious dent in terrorism in general, as well as the guys who did this.

Cryofax
Of course nobody wants to kill the "wrong" people. But if we take out all the terrorists, but unintentionally kill some civilians (not thousands, but let's say a few hundred) in the country does that mean the operation was a failure?

Oliver J. Hanau
No, it doesn't. I agree with you there, basically. But unless you wipe out all the terrorists responsible for the recent attack AND their sympathizers AND all the sympathizing, unrelated terrorist groups in other countries AND their sympathizers, there will always be more terrorists. Make up your own mind about the odds.

No question a very complicated, long and involved process. We'd need that global coalition and cooperation for it to succeed in the long run.

I can understand wanting to kill people as retribution (although I don't agree), I'd even agree that killing some innocent civilians in the process might be a necessary evil in politics, but I do NOT agree that the civilians are at fault just because they share a country with people who harbour bin Laden (or whomever).

I guess for me it depends on the scale of the conflict. If we are in an all-out declared war with some nation, I say everything is fair game. If this is more a matter of flushing out specific people or surgical strikes without an actual war against that nation, then civilian casualties should be kept to a minimum.

- Cryo