Re: The Morning After

Steffen, there is a grain of truth in what you say. Unfortunately, it is a flawed grain. I'm old enough, and enough of a student of history, to clearly remember the events leading up to WWII.
Neville Chamberline tried your approach with Hitler ("We have achieved peace in our time"). Obviously it didn't work. We also tried it with the Japanese in the early 1930's. That didn't work either.
And in recent years we have tried to walk a fine line with the Muslim fundamentalists, with zilch results.
My point is that when you are dealing with irrational madmen, the humanitarian approach is so many pretty, and useless, words. The only thing these people understand is force. Chuck Colson, of the Nixon era, had a good phrase. "When you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow."
In WWII, after years of trying to stay out of it, when we were finally forced into battle, it was to the finish We, as a country, knew it going in. No quarter asked or given.
But after prevailing after 3-1/2 bloody years of war, we ended up rebuilding the economies of both Japan and Germany.
Japan and Germany were a threat to the entire world, just as the international terrorists are today. And they should be treated in a like manner. Whether you like it or not -- we are at war.
Throughout history, many irrational despots have attempted to justify their self-serving quests for power and control in the name of some religion. The Catholics tried to do it in the Inquistion, and even Hitler justified a lot of his actions based on Christianity.
Islam in its purest form does not condone the actions of the bin Laden's of the world. There are thousands of law-abiding Muslims in this country, and they are tolerated the same as any other religion.
Whatever we so, I think that we should make it very, very clear that we are not going against Islam, but bin Laden, the bottom-feeding scumbag. If Afganistan comes to its senses and throws the bastard out on his righteous ass, then I'm sure we will be more than happy to leave them alone. And without the Afgan turban to hide behind, bin Laden won't last a month. Someone will take him out, and there won't be the legal nicety of a trial. Someone will FedEx his head.
And if the Afgans continue to deny any responsibility and continue to harbor this creep, then there is bound to be collateral damage. Regretable and unfortunate, but that's reality. Play by the rules and everything will be fine. We'll even send you a billion or two in aid.
But whatever happens, people of bin Laden's ilk have to be made to come to the realization that the world community will no longer tolerate this barbarous behavior.
Sorry, Steffen, but my humanitarian leanings only go so far.
CJ