Posted by Adam on September 12, 2001, at 15:23:43
In reply to Re: Nuke the Bastards (redirect from P-B) » thrud, posted by Elizabeth on September 12, 2001, at 13:44:30
>
> I respectfully disagree. I don't believe that an entire country (Afghanistan seems to be the current front-runner) should be held responsible for the acts of a few fanatics. Partying in the streets is an act of free expression, not an act of war.
>
> Also, if it's the Palestinians, bear in mind that they don't *have* a country, and we'd have to nuke at least one of our allies (Israel) if we're going to nuke the Palestinians.
>
> -elizabethI think Afghanistan is going to be tough. There are, it would appear, more than a few fanatics there, and Osama bin Laden seems to be a de facto government minister of some sort. From what I have read, there are more moderate elements of the Taliban who don't much like him, but they're powerless to do anything about him. Pariah status doesn't seem to have deterred the Taliban in the slightest from committing awful deeds, waging a kind of war on its own people, and its own past, in an effort to clease the land of all but a perverted form of Islam.
If the Taliban isn't willing to turn bin Laden over at some point, they may be complicit in the current catastrophe. I think any hope of any of them winding up in an international court (the most appropriate, least-likely measure) is faint, without considerable bloodshed to get at them, and it will entail war with the nation of Afghanistan, since many are loyal to the Taliban.
But for heaven's sake, whatever happens, no nukes. This ain't WWII anymore. It's not like we're the only ones who have them, or could build them. Do we want the next terrorist attack to involve a nuclear bomb someone drives into the Capitol Mall? Use even the puniest tactical warhead in a conflict with Islamic extremists, and you may as well call that sort of scenerio a given. It may still be, even in the absence of such provocation. That's why I shudder so much at the future prospects. We already know what's really possible now. Throw even a Hiroshima-size bomb into the mix (entirely realistic, unfortunately, given the military sophistication of some of the "rogue states"), and imagine what New York would look like right now.
poster:Adam
thread:11252
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010909/msgs/11260.html