Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Dean
We have the weapons and technology to kick ass and walk away. You know where the F'ers that organized 9/11 are, bomb them and anyone near them back to the stone age with either conventional or tactical nuclear weapons, and send a message to the rest of the MF'ers not to F with us. And scare the crap out of anyone from aiding or harboring these animals ever again.
|
Have to agree with Mike on that one. Nukes are the last resort of all last resorts in any conflict, for a variety of reasons (political, psychological, environmental, etc.). Most of our small tactical weapons have yields larger than our wartime strikes on Japan. Not exactly precision. That's like using a flamethrower to kill the ant crawling across your living room wall. Sure it'll work, but it will totally fuck up the place you live.
For that matter, I think that whole strategy is flawed. We've done "shock & awe", more than once. It doesn't seem to have worked very well in either case. I think the way we're conducting ourselves also feeds right into the radical ideology that they're spewing against us in that part of the world. Every time we invade a country, every time we occupy a city, every time we call in a "precision" airstrike on a residential house that a lone gunman just ran into for cover (and kill an entire family)... it gives those assholes more fodder to rant about in their sermons, and makes it more likely that they'll convince a new generation to fight back by strapping on an explosive belt.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Dean
The founding fathers did not intend for the US to launch democratic crusades across the globe.
If people want to start a democracy, let them, and even help them where it makes sense, but we shouldn't be trying to force it on anyone, even evil dictatorships. And if spreading democracy was really our goal, why aren't we doing so closer to home. How tough would it be to take Cuba and convert it to a democratic state? Hell, why not just conquer it and make it a state? Oh, right, no oil in Cuba...
|
I totally agree with that though. All these neocon speeches about how we need to spread democracy around the world ring hollow to me, when we've had a communist, totalitarian dictatorship sitting 90 miles off our coast for decades - and done NOTHING substantive about it.