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Originally posted by askan:
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Originally posted by geoschmo:
If a nation, any nation, can be shown to have been involved in this, even indirectly by simply allowing those guilty freedom of movement and the ability to train, then that nation can be, MUST be held responsible. Eqully responsible to those that took an active part in the actions.
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Now thats a big and dangerous statement.
Askan
Indeed.
Wasn't it the US that created this monster Bin Laden in the first place?
Back when he was fighting the Soviet empire it was allright for him to murder, he got CIA training and support to do so. Now that he has turned against the American empire, it is a different matter.
America is indeed an empire, as Puke boldly states, and it IS imperialistic, in that it has dirtied it's hands in external affairs on numerous occasions. Askan's list is by no means complete. Besides actual dirty work there is huge pressure on nations to view and do things 'The American Way'.
To you and me the frase 'The American way' sounds like a good thing but to many others it certainly does not.
Many people bear a grudge against the US and it's supremacy. And 'resistance' has been going on for a long time. It just wasn't waged on American home soil and on such a scale.
Now, I am not saying that America is reaping what it has sown but it is indeed a war. A war that, seen from the other's viewpoint, could be regarded as a freedom fight against American dominance and they fight it as any other group has done in history, when they were confronted by a military machine many times superior. One calls them guerilla's or maquis or partisans the other calls them terrorists, bandits, rebels. It is an age old dilemma and it is now America's turn to wonder how to deal with such an enemy. Do you use oppression(turn the state into a police state) , retaliate(against Afghanistan?), search and destroy?
Very difficult indeed. Decisions not to be taken lightly.
None of us want to live in a police state like the old Soviet Union or the Third Reich, with propaganda and security ensuring that everebody sees things the 'right way'.
As for retaliation,Austria's decision to retaliate against Serbia, harbouring and supporting the assasins of their crown-prince, led to World War I. Please remember.
Maybe search and destroy remains the best option.Although it does not give you immediate satisfaction for the grief and horror of the attack, it does reduce the risk of creating even more hate and killing the wrong people.
my 2 cents, I guess.