Q for you

Post #46,724 by rsf 7/24/02 12:32:37 PM Reply	Q for you Do you feel that are no situations where we (the US, the good guys, etc.) should not kill non-combatants? Ray
Post #46,747 by Brandioch 7/24/02 2:36:54 PM Reply	No. Do you feel that are no situations where we (the US, the good guys, etc.) should not kill non-combatants? No, I don't. Let me remove some of the negatives. "Do you feel that there are situations where we (the US, the good guys, etc.) should kill non-combatants?" Yes, I do. And I've already been over that. In WW2, we had to bomb factories that were in towns and cities and our weapons were not accurate enough to specifically destroy said factories (not to mention some of them were working day and night) and we inflicted civilian casualties. And, as I've already stated, I do not view anti-terrorist operations as military operations. Taking out a factory in a city is a strategic military operation. Firing a missle at an apartment building to kill one criminal is not. An example would be if the NYPD decided to bomb a restaraunt because a known mob boss was eating there.
Post #46,754 by rsf 7/24/02 3:40:17 PM Reply	Analogy doesn't hold An example would be if the NYPD decided to bomb a restaraunt because a known mob boss was eating there. Is this mob boss trying to drive the Jews out of by NY by force? Is this mob boss organizing suicide bombers to carry out attacks in major NY institutions? And an increasing number of those bombers are teenagers and may be younger? (If the Pals view their children as expendable combatants, why should we shed a tear? Besides, how many potential suicide bomber lives will be spared by cutting the heads off of Hamas, Islamic Jhihad, etc. before they can organize the next wave of bombings?) Is this restaurant in a borough where the population supports the mob and just about every male over 12 in the area has a Kalashnikov and wouldn't hesitate to fire it on a cop (echos of Black Hawk Down here!). If these conditions were true, do you think we would be treating this as a simple police operation? Kind of hard to recite the Miranda Rights while RPG's are exploding around you. Ray
Post #46,760 by Brandioch 7/24/02 4:53:12 PM Reply	It does hold. Is this mob boss trying to drive the Jews out of by NY by force? He's driving out other criminal organizations. Is this mob boss organizing suicide bombers to carry out attacks in major NY institutions? He's ordering the deaths of others. And an increasing number of those bombers are teenagers and may be younger? Why does the age matter? (If the Pals view their children as expendable combatants, why should we shed a tear? Besides, how many potential suicide bomber lives will be spared by cutting the heads off of Hamas, Islamic Jhihad, etc. before they can organize the next wave of bombings?) Okay, every Palestinian in Gaza has the exact same views as every other Palestinian in Gaza. Right? Wrong. What ONE organization views children as has ZERO relevence to how OTHER people view children and EVEN LESS RELEVENCE to how WE should treat children. Is this restaurant in a borough where the population supports the mob and just about every male over 12 in the area has a Kalashnikov and wouldn't hesitate to fire it on a cop (echos of Black Hawk Down here!). Are you saying that in such a circumstance you would agree with the missle strike? There are neighborhoods in the US where gang activity is similar to what you describe. Yet we don't do military strikes against their leaders. If these conditions were true, do you think we would be treating this as a simple police operation? Kind of hard to recite the Miranda Rights while RPG's are exploding around you. Nice visual. But wouldn't the RPG's also kill the leader who was being detained? The analogy is correct. A person who is a leader of a criminal organization that orders the deaths of innocents is in a public building. The age of the people doing the killing does not matter. Whether they are suicides or not does not matter. What his goals are do not matter. Whether he has lots of friendlies around him does not matter. Do we launch an attack that we KNOW will kill innocents in the surrounding area just so we can kill him? The end does not justify the means.

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