To support PCS there seems to be a confusion at the heart of this war: is it to find and destroy OBL and Al-Q, or is it to flatten a country whose gov.t 'we' don't like?
If the former - they should at least test the Taliban's offer to hand OBL to a third country to put on trial. If that didn't work, seek UN legitimacy, put together an international investigation, an international police force (to be sensitive and effective it would have to be a muslim-led coalition), if necessary, in the final analysis, send in ground troops - again muslim-led.
If the latter - it's hypocritical to attack Afghanistan and not to attack Saudi Arabia. But then the current Saudi regime (with it's repression of women, and all people outside the narrow dynastic elite) would not survive without US patronage (given in return for a cheap and continuous supply of oil).
The fact that neither course is chosen says a lot more about domestic politics (Bush has to be seen to act, Bush gets to play statesman with a big stick, Bush gets the legitimacy the election didn't give him, generals get to play with their toys, big gov.t gets to spend more taxes, none of 'our boys' die, cos that would look bad) than about any concern over ethics or international law.
To make it clear: this is terrorist action by any definition of the word. It is action without legitimacy in international law, it is about using force to coerce and intimidate (well beyond the immediate Afghani victims), and is about demonstrating US millitary superiority in a (ultimately doomed) attempt to keep all the other simmering conflicts under thumb.
It is also an appallingly short-term prosecution of US interests. Even in the short term it is giving OBL legitimacy in the eyes of millions, in the medium and long term, it will destabilise most of the governments of the region as the popular mood errupts through largely undemocratic, hostile regimes.
There are so many reasons why this action is wrong - even from a red-blooded red-neck US point of view that it amazes me that some here have some problem with it. The US has an incredably strong tradition of independent thought, of opposition to federal action, of grass-roots activiism, of liberal, even libertarian outlook. What happened to that tradition? We don't seem to get much of a reflection of it from our american posters. Has it died?
[ 16 October 2001: Message edited by: bruise ]
