From: Jasper
Date: 9/29/01
Time: 8:31:37 PM
Kari,
Revenge and anger have nothing to do with the necessity of taking out the people responsible for the 911 attack. And the terrain in Afghanistan had nothing to do with the Soviet defeat. A competent army can fight and win in any terrain. The Soviet Army was not a competent army. It was poorly structured, poorly led, inadequately financed and it never adjusted its tactics to cope changing situations. In the end, they were defeated by the crumbling walls of their political and economic instability - and their own peach movement.
I don't know of anyone here who is advocating indiscriminant bombing or anything of that sort. The indiscriminate killing of civilians is one of the things we're fighting against (finally!). The most effective bombs we can drop on some targets are propaganda bombs. In the end it's not bombs and bullets that win wars, anyway. It's convincing the enemy that he can't win. --Jasper