The UN bans the sale of WMD’s to terrorists. Great move. I feel very safe now. Note that Kofi Annan has an opinion on what we are doing in Fallujah: "Violent military action by an occupying power against inhabitants of an occupied country will only make matters worse. It’s definitely time, time now for those who prefer restraint and dialogue to make their voices heard." Thank you Mr. Secretary General, that is helpful; keep talking. Just maybe, Annan should consider this piece by Claudia Rosett on the Oil-for-Food program from Commentary, and then talk about that.
It’s remarkably difficult to conduct a dialogue with someone when they’re flying a jet into a skyscraper.
We see here the psychology of the diplomats: they want to impose their own limitations onto everybody else. All they can do is talk and write: they can’t fight. So, they don’t want anybody to accomplish by fighting what the talking/writing diplomats can’t ever accomplish no matter how much they speak and scribble.
I’m not a big fan of Annan’s, but on this he makes excellent sense. A key strategy of guerrilla warfare is to make the enemy’s strength his weakness. In the current situation, that means provoking coalition forces into making a massively deadly and destructive statement about how much military power we have and are willing to exert. That’s what the insurgents want.
There is no surer way to rally more financial backing from throughout the Islamic world and draw more radical Islamic crazies to al Qaeda’s cause than for our forces to flatten Fallujah and destroy Najaf, racking up a lot of collateral damage and piling up a lot dead noncombatants’ bodies in the process.
In fact, we cannot win in Iraq militarily unless we’re willing to practice genocide and lay waste to the whole country. The key to doing what we intend to do there requires the willing cooperation of Iraqis who support our plans. We either find a way to elicit that support and win, or we lose. It’s that simple.
Yes, but what is the definition of "terrorist"? Do Palestinian terrorists count or are they "freedom fighters"?
Sejin Park: Based on decades of evidence, terrorism is an ingrained Palestinian characteristic and folkway, passed along from foolhardy parents to hapless children who never learn anything else or anything better.
As far as "counting" is concerned, it appears to me a majority of Arab Muslims consider the Palestinians’ group psychosis ("cause," they would call it) as topping a long list of reasons to loathe and despise non-Muslim Westerners in general and Americans most especially.
Actually a surer way for the US to provoke greater hostility to us is to appear weak and irresolute. We have done so for the last several weeks in Iraq. Now it may be that there is some deep-laid plan which, when consummated, will secure the capture of Fallujah and Najaf and the destruction of the Saddamite and Jihadi thugs of the former and the al-Sadr thugs of the latter. I hope so (and am reluctant to second guess competent people on the scene). But I am disturbed that we seem to be dithering, reaching out to Saddamites, giving the impression of fearing casualties (remember the jihadis think that we are so decadent that a few deaths will make us retreat), and turning our backs on the Iraqis who supported our campaign and who we know want consensual government there.