What? There's every reason to call for an end to the bombing, but the proposal you stated earlier seems oblivious to the fact that the bombing *is* going on. You use entirely conditional terms in saying: "As for my 'considerable use of force,' I think it would come after a thorough investigation of who did what. That would include police-style investigations of the sort going on around the world right now, internationally coordinated. If and when the truth were uncovered, I think some force, under UN auspices, would have to capture the perps and maybe displace the Taliban. That could be messy, a point that a lot of cops-and-courts partisans don't talk about."
Those "police-style investigations" are proceeding simultaneously with all-too-miltary-style intervention in Afghanistan that poses grave risks to civilians and has already caused collateral fatalities.
To make things nice and legal again, we would have to: *stop* bombing and sending in troops unilaterally (or with just our trusty sidekick the UK); complete the essential due-process preliminaries ("detective work, arresting suspects, interrogating possible witnesses," as you mention in a later post); present the total accumulated evidence to the UN and lay it out in public for all the world to see; and get the UN to authorize and direct the multinational force needed to seize the duly indicted terrorists wherever they may be.
Carl
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