09-17-2001, 03:35 AM
As horrified and outraged by last Tuesday's events, i strongly urge caution when it comes to military action.
First,it is a much different kind of war than what we have known in the history of human conflicts.Sending thousands of men and women to battle in Afghanistan or in the nearby regions would be costly both in lives and money.It is known that Taliban soldiers are superb warriors.They have the twin advantages of experience, battle tested from on the job training against the former Soviet army as well as knowledge of local terrain and conditions.Even with superior weaponry and technology, do we really want our soldiers there? i am not sure.
Second, we dont want to widen the conflict that it becomes from the locals' point of view "us against them" meaning in a shooting war where a lot of noncombating civilians get killed, the adversary can claim that is the west against the Moslems, destabilize the countries nearby populated by mostly Moslems.
Third, as abhorent as last tuesday's events, one has to admit the brillancy of their strategy and tactics.They used our own strengths of having an open and free society and our technology against us combined with the willingness of their pawns to sacriface themselves. We need to have an equally brillant plan of attact against them without causing unnecessary damage and deaths among the locals which the enemy can take advantage of.
There are no easy solutions. Perhaps what is needed is a much better military intelligence, both domestic and abroad. Before anything, we need to root out any more possible "sleeper" terrorists who could wake up and cause more mayhem and damage.
"Hitting back" should not the major aim but rather being effective in weeding out the real culprits and bring them back to justice.
Perhaps we need to train counter terrorist guerillas and assasins much like the Israelis have been doing effectively to protect themselves. In short, we must be willing to play dirty in a conflict where anything goes and there are no rules.
First,it is a much different kind of war than what we have known in the history of human conflicts.Sending thousands of men and women to battle in Afghanistan or in the nearby regions would be costly both in lives and money.It is known that Taliban soldiers are superb warriors.They have the twin advantages of experience, battle tested from on the job training against the former Soviet army as well as knowledge of local terrain and conditions.Even with superior weaponry and technology, do we really want our soldiers there? i am not sure.
Second, we dont want to widen the conflict that it becomes from the locals' point of view "us against them" meaning in a shooting war where a lot of noncombating civilians get killed, the adversary can claim that is the west against the Moslems, destabilize the countries nearby populated by mostly Moslems.
Third, as abhorent as last tuesday's events, one has to admit the brillancy of their strategy and tactics.They used our own strengths of having an open and free society and our technology against us combined with the willingness of their pawns to sacriface themselves. We need to have an equally brillant plan of attact against them without causing unnecessary damage and deaths among the locals which the enemy can take advantage of.
There are no easy solutions. Perhaps what is needed is a much better military intelligence, both domestic and abroad. Before anything, we need to root out any more possible "sleeper" terrorists who could wake up and cause more mayhem and damage.
"Hitting back" should not the major aim but rather being effective in weeding out the real culprits and bring them back to justice.
Perhaps we need to train counter terrorist guerillas and assasins much like the Israelis have been doing effectively to protect themselves. In short, we must be willing to play dirty in a conflict where anything goes and there are no rules.