wayward's Blog

You are right in that Al Qaeda will exploit our system of laws and judicial protections. However, we cannot sacrifice freedom in order to save it. That defeats the whole purpose of why we are fighting.

Ordinarily I'd agree. But we cannot give the folks that would destroy our way of life the freedoms we have. If they win, we lose our freedom. Just don't let them get away behind ours. Sometimes you have to remove a limb from a tree to save the tree. Sometimes we have to suspend some rights to survive.

- ed evans

Likewise, there is no guarantee that heavy handed tactics will work either. The Russians have been trying this for years in Chechnya, and it hasn't solved their terrorism problem.

But you cannot give up the fight. And as for interogation to save American lives, heavy handed stuff should be allowed. They will not talk to us, but if they think someone, say an Iraqi will do the interogation, they'll sing.

- ed evans

And yes, I do believe that alleged terrorists should have access to the courts. This is necessary so that we can sort out the ones who are actually terrorists, and should be punished, from those who were just mistaken for terrorists, and should be freed.

I agree that we should not detain anyone longer than neccesssary. Maybe the Military tribunals to sort out the non terrorist? But Courts and a fair trial for ones that want to destroy our way of life? Never!

- ed evans

Excellent points, Wayward.

But Al Quaeda has an Army. Just not a standing Army. They have their shadowy soldiers and the training camps to teach them their deadly crafts.

And they have the schools where they teach the children that the USA is the Big Satan. And they also teach them to exploit our greatest strength to their advantage, That strength they exploit is our openess and the guarantee of a trial, and freedom from brutal treatment, They exploit that. That's why, to be effective in dealing with them the military solution works.

Law enforcement advocates want to read them their rights, get them lawyers and tie the courts up with their cases. They sneer at our system of justice and do not fear imprisonment from us. They have to be made to fear the consequencies of tangling with our forces.

And it will take the military working with other agencies to cut off arms and money for AL Quaeda.

Iraq at the time was the thing to do. And no doubt a lot of mistakes have been made. But we really do not have a choice now about leaving the job undone. And you're right about poor post war planning. And about the 20-20 vision thing, is hindsight....

The fight is underway. I am not sure we can do anything other than take the fight to the enemy and exact a huge price from him that would allow everyone to down swords and go home, without fear of another disaster like 9-11, or worse.

- ed evans

Andrew: your last post was "cute." And I am sure a lot of folks are impressed with your ability to post the list of recruiters.

But you did not answer two questions. 1. What was your source for the comment about the recruiting being the lowest since.... And 2. Do you not believe that we are in an Epic Struggle?

And I'll comment on Waywards post

Guess there aren't as many Democrats in uniform as some of y'all think there are, huh?

- JDTippett

Congratulations on winning the prize from Wayward, by the way. I wouldn't put it in the display case yet, though. It may just be plastic sprayed with gold paint to LOOK like it's worth something. And handle it with care, because it may have recently been full of crap.

- JDTippett

We missed you Wayward!

The reason that we can't win in Iraq is that we aren't playing to win. We don't have any capable leadership in charge and nobody trusts the leaders we do have.

The most effective military is focused on doing exactly what leadership says to do. Right now, our leadership doesn't even know what to do.

Our troops have recieved an order to hold their positions while the "leaders" figure out what to do. Holding position doesn't win war and doesn't further protect our national security. All it does is jeopardize the lives of our troops.

Without any plan or leadership, we cant succeed. The best strategy is to pull out, regroup, and form a new strategy.

- ahammett

The recent stories coming out about some deficiencies in our veterans hospitals would have been nothing more than a small blip on the radar screen to the mainstream media EXCEPT for their hatred of George W. Bush. They care less about helping those veterans than they care about destroying morale and undermining the current war effort.

- JDTippett

JD, I agree - George W Bush is the single greatest factor that is undermining our current war effort. We need a real leader.

- ahammett

Rightly or wrongly, George W Bush is fighting that war.

Some people just don't get it: the terrorists want to convert us or kill us. I don't see a lot of middle ground there. If they will explode a bomb in a market place full of non combatants what would they do here? Crash planes in buildings? Use babies to get explosives on board airplanes?

- ed evans

We have a real leader. What scares me is what we'll have in the White House come January 20, 2009.

And, Andrew, we don't agree on anything - at least, as far as the military and the War on Terror are concerned. Have you been taking your cue from that noted expert on military planning and tactics, Nancy Pelosi, or did you reach your (wrong) conclusions all by yourself?

- JDTippett

The U.S. already made reparations for slavery. It was called The Civil War. Today only the lowest of the low would advocate such an immoral and barbaric practice as slavery.

Instead of continuing to beat ourselves with the whip of guilt for slavery, Americans should congratulate themselves for being the first in the world to eradicate this savage practice that, sadly enough, is still commonly seen throughout the undeveloped parts of the globe.

- OneSmallVoice

Did this country learn nothing from Viet Nam. Do Not forget that Siagon did not fall until after a truce had been signed and we were in the process of already drawing down our troops over there. Then and only then did NV attack and kill millions of people.

Vietnam was a bit before my time, but I don't remember North Vietnam ever attacking the United States.

Although Saigon may have fallen, the US still won the Cold War. Although the US pulled out of Vietnam, doing so did not endanger the US.

In fact, after the war ended, the communists fought each other. Vietnam fought a war against China and Cambodia, all communist countries.

Given that history has shown that the communist victory did not endanger the US, was it the job of our country to defend South Vietnam? Was it the job of our servicemen to die for South Vietnam?

Is it the job of our military to defend America, or is this mission to defend the world?

- wayward

During the Viet Nam War, Russian pilots actually had dog fights with U.S. Pilots. Russians took an active part in the Viet Nam War by supplying and training the North Vietnamese. Before Viet Nam, we had the Cuban Missile Crisis where the Russians were putting nuclear missiles in Cuba only 90 miles from Florida trained on U.S. cities. There is no evidence that Iraq has actively participated in any direct threat against the U.S. The war mongers nowadays are using the same old "If we don't find them over there, we'll be fighting them over here" propoganda. We heard that during the Viet Nam War days when the threat to our National Security was much more grave than what we are facing now. For those of us who lived through Viet Nam and the 1960's era, this terrorist threat is nothing new. Cigarettes, obesity, alcohol, and guns kill more Americans every year than the terrorists could ever imagine killing.

- BLee

Did this country learn nothing from Viet Nam. Do Not forget that Siagon did not fall until after a truce had been signed and we were in the process of already drawing down our troops over there. Then and only then did NV attack and kill millions of people.

I don't know if Bob Inglis' fingerprints are on that knife, but it probably does deserve a closer look. If that resolution is Congress' idea of "supporting our troops" though, I certainly hope they don't have many more knives. Our soldiers and Marines are having enough trouble dodging ENEMY fire without having to dodge bullets and knives from Washington, D.C., and the people who voted to send them into battle.

My son is in combat. Several of his friends have suffered severe wounds in combat, and they are currently being treated at military facilities in various locations. From what I can tell, the care they are receiving is better than the treatment you or I would receive in private, not-for-profit facilities.

Let's do away with "Zero Tolerance" first, then we can talk about parental involvement, discipline, and "RULES, RULES, RULES."

As long as "Zero Tolerance" is in place, discipline is a joke because of the very wrong message it sends to the children: "Real-world rules and protections that other Americans enjoy don't apply to you."

I'm not talking about anything major, I guess. Just the right of self defense, the right to appeal, and the right of habeus corpus. Did you know that things that are perfectly legal in the REAL world can get a child kicked out of school for the remainder of the school year?

Yeah, that'll teach them about "equal justice for all" won't it?

- JDTippett