Question to Viet Vets...

[lochinvar]

I just finished reading 355's post in "Will we really get him?", and I was struck by how casually people seem to be taking the whole 'colateral damage to civilians' aspect of this proposed strike in Afghanistan. Sort of a dismissive 'you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs' attitude.

Is anyone else on this board of an age to have served in the green between '65 and '74? If so, I would like to hear your views on all of this.

[HilandDoug]

I was just a kid then, and haven't read 355's post, but it seems that 355 hasn't been keeping up on the news. We're not going in like the Russians did, and we're not going to carpet bomb the whole country. Doesn't anyone know what a "surgical strike" is?

[veeco]

No I don't know what a surgical strike is...

Have you seen one with your own eyes? If you did you would probably not be able to answer me right now.

No matter how "surgical" you are, you will still be doing collateral damage. It's a fact. There's always a wrong person at the wrong place.

The term "surgical strike" was invented if I recall during Desert Storm by the media to kind of make the people watching war on tv at home more comfortable with the idea of being in war. Oh yeah, we're in war, but we're the good guys, we don't kill any civilians and we are just shooting at the military. Civilians did get killed during Desert Storm.

[HilandDoug]

I agree with you, Veeco, but my point was that we are not going to carpet bomb the whole country, or target civilians.

[lochinvar]

Thanks for your input so far.
Doug, I know you're not a vet.
Veeco, were you ever incountry?

[veeco]

Well, I've been in lots of countries. What do you mean by "were you ever in country".

If you're asking if I am a veteran from any war, the answer is no.

[lochinvar]

Sorry, veeco. It's shorthand.
"Incountry"="In the bush"="in the green"=in Vietnam.

I was kinda hoping there were some 'Nam vets out there to answer this one. You didn't say, so I thought I'd ask for clarification.

[MStaubitz]

Well,I am far too young to be a Vietnam vet. I did however do a year in the German Air Force.

In either case, both as an ex-grunt and a history/military buff, here's a few points:

The Russians got their behind handed to them by the Mujaheddin (sp?). Afghanistan was their Vietnam. So, any plans of a ground war should probably be kept in the drawer.

Carpet bombing won't do the job either. Not only because of a lot of collatoral damage, but more importantly the fact that this is some rugged terrain with not a hell of a lot of infrastructure. So, yeah, go ahead and throw some cluster bombs around, but it's not gonna do a lot of good. Probably lots of broken rocks.

Carpet bombing is not really that effective anymore anyway. In WWII, it worked, because it was the most amount of damage you could do to a big area in a short time. Besides, being a German myself, I can attest that Germany is pretty jam-packed and there were/are a lot of industrial targets all over the place. In Afghanistan, you might hit their goat-herding industry pretty hard, but that's about it.

What people seem to forget is that we are not really at war with Afghanistan. We are looking for one loonie and his cronies. And according to the Pentagon, the SEALs, the Green Berets, the Rangers and maybe the Boy Scouts have been sneaking around over there looking for Usama for a few weeks now. That's probably going to be the only effective way of resolving this without escalating things to global war.

Of course that will present the next problem: If we catch him, then what?

Imprison him? His cronies will do all kinds of things to either bargain him out or break him out directly. Not a good idea.

Kill him? Then he's a martyr and his cronies and anyone who remotely liked him will just go into a frenzy and that's not that desirable either.

Tough call...

[HilandDoug]

A friend sent me an e-mail with "the Solution" to bin Laden. We can't kill him, or he'll become a martyr. We can't imprison him, or they'll kidnap people and ransom a trade. What we need to do is nab Osama, drug him, fly him to a hospital, give him a sex change operation, and make him live as a woman under the Taliban regime!

Too funny, in my book!

[arcon]

As far out as that seems its not a bad idea given the other two alteratives. We turn him into a woman , force him to exotic dance the rest of his life. All his fortune and future income will go to the familys of the victims he had killed.

On the serious note I have no idea the whats best to do with the guy.

arcon

[Event Horizon]

uh, just because someone has a sex change operation doesn't mean they are going to look good. I dun think anyone would pay money to Osama bin stripper.

[MStaubitz]

Originally posted by Event Horizon:
<STRONG>uh, just because someone has a sex change operation doesn't mean they are going to look good. I dun think anyone would pay money to Osama bin stripper. </STRONG>

Well, just about every American is pissed at him right now... I am sure that there are quite a few that would pay money to make fun of him...

My father-in-law told me a joke yesterday...

Blair, Bush and bin Laden walk along the beach. They come across a lamp lying in the lamp. As those jokes usually go, there's a djinni in the lamp, granting each of them a wish. Blair says "Well, it rains way too much in England, so how about a nice weather change... not too hot, not too cold... perfect vacation weather... and of course it shouldn't mess with farmers either."

Djinni grants the wish and all of England has perfectly fine weather, the farms are producing like crazy, and everyone who didn't want to spend their vacation in the rain flocks to England as the new prime vacation spot.

bin Laden is next, and he requests a country of his own, surrounded by an impenetrable wall, so all his loyal followers can live with him without being hassled or influenced by the evil Americans.

So, the djinni selects a nice spot and surrounds it by a wall a mile thick and twelve miles high. No doors, no windows, nothing can get in or out, bin Laden and all his cohorts inside, living the way they want, without any interaction with the West.

Now it's Bush's turn. He asks the djinni to tell him more about that wall. "Really, nobody can get in or out, twelve miles high, a mile thick?" "Yup."

Here's his wish: "Fill that wall with water!"