Originally posted by deSelys
Sorry Thud, but I don't think that your post will be very helpful to keep the debate civil.
I think that it is better to remind to our friends on the other side of the pond that:
- just because we don't support the war in Irak doesn't mean that we are pro-terrorists or pro-Saddam
- just because we disagree with today US foreign policy doesn't mean that we have no admiration for a country which accomplished so many great things, and that we have forgotten what it did for us in the past
- just because we consider the assassination of the Hamas leader as a very bad political move doesnt' mean that we have any sympathy for those killers
- just because we consider Bush as inept doesn't mean that we regard him as 'evil'
-...
In a nutshell, I believe that we all think the same about who are the good guys and who are the bad guys in the world today. But we do think that the 'cowboy' (to say it mildly) approach of the US and Israel, for every baddie removed from the face of the Earth, produces 10 new motivated recruits...
deSelys,
I agree almost completely with your post, but I differ in one small regard. There's no guarantee that by assasinating the top leaders of the terrorists, that we can stop terrorism. Agreed. Likewise, there's no guarantee that by assasinating the top leaders it won't stop terrorism. I don't think anyone knows what will happen at this point.
But one can look back and rue the failures of the various anti-Nazi attempts on the life of Adolf Hitler. It can be argued that had any of these attempts succeeded, World War II could have been stopped long before it was, and perhaps even avoided altogether.
Can the current terroristic threat perpetuated by Osama Bin Laden and Al Quaeda be stopped with his death? I don't think anyone knows, but we should continue to work toward this end to find out.
As you know, I am no fan of President Bush, but in this war against terrorism, the gloves had to come off. Terrorism is not going to go away by negotiating with the terrorists. It's only going to go away by crushing them.
I don't consider President Bush as evil, either. But I don't think he has been completely honest with the American public.