Is it just me, or does everybody seem to be talking past each other?
Everybody's seems to be acting as if there is only one set of appropriate responses. In reality, however, in oredr to stop this from happening again the U.S needs to adopt a whole range of short, medium, and long term actions.
In the short term, obviously we need heightened security, aggresive police work to round up any remaining terrorists in this country, etc. In the long term, changeing U.S. policies in the middle east could have the effect of reducing the ability of radical islamic groups to recruit new suicide bombers.
But in the medium term, the fact remains that there are terrorist organizations operating in a another countries' territory, with at least the tacit support of the local regime. While this doesn't call for a massive bombing campaign against civilian targets, it does require some sort of military response. you can't just send cops with arrest warrants into Afganistan.
It's been strage this past week to see fierce denuciations on the left of actions the adminitration shows no signs of taking. I saw Rumsfeld on TV yesterday saying that "this is not about retaliation", and they show every sign of understanding that a massive strike would be not only militarily dicy but would play right into Bin Laden's strategy. I realize there are some here who, like Chomsky, oppose anything the U.S. gov does on principle, but the idea that the U.S. can sit back and allow an organization that has attacked U.S. soil and shows every intention of doing it again to operate freely is pretty unrealistic.
Jim Baird
In the
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