This is starting to really worry me. For some weeks we have been raiding across the border into Pakistan. Now we have ground forces actually stationed in Pakistan, "combat advisors" who are training the Pakistani forces in special operations. That's how Vietnam started.
The raids across the Pakistani border are continuing, and now we have a similar raid across the Syrian border. American troops have been involved in firefights in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and now Syria.
This is beginning to sound like something is seriously out of control.
A couple of months back, Bush issued orders that Ben Laden is to be captured or killed before his term is over in office. While we don't know the details, it is reasonable to assume that it included phrases like "no matter what the cost" and "whatever it takes".
ReplyDeleteIt appears that the military is taking this on face value. If the rumour says that Ben Laden is in a school in northern Afghanastan, blow up the school. If he may be in an enclave inside the Pakistan border, cross the border and kill everyone in the area. I think that the hope is that, sooner or later, one of these indiscriminate killing sprees will actually get the guy and, when it does, all will be forgiven. The sad thing is that, from the US and European perspective, this is probably true. From the Pakistan/Afghanastan perspective, however, we're sowing the seeds of hatred and anger for generations to come.
We've already sown the seeds of hatred etc for years to come. That, I think is probably to worst thing to come out of all the warfare we've been doing over there. We've always had something of a tenuous relationship with the arabic world, but this is certainly worse news coming after bad. Can you possibly do any worse, Mr. President Bush? Unfortunately, he can, and if we're unlucky he will.
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