Arguments for ground war - forget it

[Kelley]

At 05:50 PM 11/21/01 -0500, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>Doug says:
>
>>brettk at unicacorp.com wrote:
>>
>>>Well, I disagree.  War against al-Qaeda is as absurd to me as war against
>>>the mafia.  Al-Qaeda is not a nation, but an organization, and as such it
>>>should be the target of an international law enforcement effort.
>>
>>According to official tales, which may or may not be true, al Qaeda has 
>>thousands of members, and became indistinguishable from the Taliban 
>>rulers of Afghanistan, with an army of many thousands more. That's a bit 
>>bigger that La Cosa Nostra. People use the crime metaphor a bit recklessly.


>Hawks have been trying to make Americans believe that Al Qaeda & the 
>Taliban waged war on America, but if the 911 attacks had been acts of war, 
>the Pentagon would have had to count as a legitimate military target, at 
>least a far more legitimate target than what the U.S. bombers have been 
>hitting -- a UN mine clearance center, a Red Cross warehouse, a hospital, 
>& the like.

actually, if you take a test on this issue in the military you'd find that 
the pentagon is a legitimate military target.


>>>Max, I'm curious.  Do you think the Afghan civilians who died because of
>>>our bombardment deservere any sort of consideration?  Should the US
>>>compensate their relatives?  Do we owe them anything?
>>
>>A massive reconstruction and development program. Anything less would be 
>>criminal neglect.
>
>A pie in the sky!

you'd know. but no, it's not: if this is about oil and pipelines then, duh, 
a marshall plan for Afghanistan.

kelley