Keep in mind that the Taliban (who have been harboring Osama bin Laden & Co.) have their headquarters well outside of Kabul, which is too easy a target for opposition forces in the nearby mountains (as the former Soviet Union quickly discovered). A U.S. attack there would make no sense unless bin Laden actually [i]were[/i] in Kabul; that's not likely, though, since he usually stays in one of his training camps in the mountains to the west. For those reasons, U.S. attacks against him (or the Taliban, for that matter) wouldn't involve bombing Kabul.
Biggles<font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
The Taliban have said that the missiles were fired from helecopters belonging to some northern rebellion army against an ammo dump.
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[b][url="http://www.minbari.co.uk/log12.2263/"]Required reading[/url][/b]
Never eat anything bigger than your own head.
The Balance provides. The Balance protects.
"Nonono...Is not [i]Great[/i] Machine. Is...[i]Not[/i]-so-Great Machine. It make good snow cone though." - Zathras
The Northern Alliance as it is called has kept the Taliban from taking over the whole country. The reason for the attacks is that the leader of the Northern Alliance was assassinated just two days ago.
Which is bad as it may mean the Taliban may win control of the whole country. Its hard to imagine that Afganistan was a free democracy before the Taliban nutters ran riot.
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'The future is all around us' G'kar
'I have no surviving enemies! None what so ever!' Galen
Visit my B5 site at: [url="http://www.nialb5.com"]B5 site[/url].
If some extreme-islamic party is behind this crappy thing, It just goes to show how easily the beliefs of an organized religion can be twisted.
Think about it; If the Pope himself would give you a chest-strap pack of C4 and told you to make a suicide strike against the "great devil himself in that building over there", and gave you his personal guarantee that you'd get to heaven for doing that, would you?
I'm not certain I could reject that kind of an offer, at least not straight away. Which I should, just for the sake of the poor ol' Ethic.
Scary.
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Life is full of surprises. The ones reserved for me usually come wearing brass knuckles.
Biggles<font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
I would reject it, saying that the Pope had gone insane and that my beliefs called for forgiveness, not the destruction of innocents to attack someone.
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[b][url="http://www.minbari.co.uk/log12.2263/"]Required reading[/url][/b]
Never eat anything bigger than your own head.
The Balance provides. The Balance protects.
"Nonono...Is not [i]Great[/i] Machine. Is...[i]Not[/i]-so-Great Machine. It make good snow cone though." - Zathras
Biggles,a good christian "Turns the other cheek" - if that is also slapped, the only christian response is a swift, hard kick in the balls of the prat doing the slapping.
Afganistan is going to get whats comming to it.No arguement from me.
Whoa, calm down a little, foo. We don't even know for certain that Ladin was responsible. If he was, then you better believe I support going after him. I'm less sure about going after Afghanistan, since I don't know to what extent that government supports his actions.
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We are here to place President Grenewetzki under arrest!
Just listening to CNN and they say if it is Bin Laden, it will be a messy affair in getting him. This nutter has a battle hardened army that surrounds him at all times.You might say just bomb the crap out the country but according to experts this won't work this time.By time this is all over many more people will have lost their lives.... [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/frown.gif[/img]
What we will have to do is get a fix on his location. Then we can send a small (very small 1/1000 of a megaton) atomic bomb into his mountain. I am totally serious. I realize that this kind of action would be opposed by many, but unfortunately this would be the only way he can be killed. He is probably farther down underground that traditional bombs can reach.
Nukes are not a military weapon. Any military person will tell you this. A nuke (even a tactical one) has to many drawbacks to use. A nuke is a political weapon, not a military one.
Agreed. General Mike Loh, last commanding officer of Strategic Air Command, fully supports the [i]elimination[/i] of all nuclear weapons, as do many other military personnel, active, reserve or retired (myself included).
Using nuclear weapons of [i]any[/i] yield for [i]any[/i] reason would instantly demote the United states to the level of the terrorists, both in the eyes of the world and its own people. (Remember the stink people made over Desert Storm? Ever see footage of the protests - and the accompanying violence - against our involvement in Vietnam? Believe me, what would happen if we used nukes in Afganistan would make all that look like a minor argument in comparison...)
[This message has been edited by An ex-Squid (edited 09-14-2001).]
In an ideal world, we could eliminate our Nuclear Weapons. Problem is just because we do, doesn't mean some other group will, and worse, find it an opportune time to finally use them.
Unfortunately they are a Pandora's Box which has been opened. Their existance helps to stay the use by others, knowing that they will get equal or worse retaliation. The only way to rid ourselves of them is to come up with something more substantial as to render them obsolete, but... what would that be? Something worse, something we'll hate even more...
Obviously our enemies are changing, against terrorists, they are useless. Terrorists are willing to die so readily as it is. The problem is compounded by our fear that they will use ours, or those of some crumbling nation, against us in a terrorist act.
We used to be able to know our enemy, face him, and fight him squarely. Now we seek out a cancer that knows how to hide behind the skirts of many countries lack of concern beyond their own borders.
Somethings got to give... and when that happens, it usually isn't very pretty...
Biggles<font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
foonacha: I'm a christian.
------------------
[b][url="http://www.minbari.co.uk/log12.2263/"]Required reading[/url][/b]
Never eat anything bigger than your own head.
The Balance provides. The Balance protects.
"Nonono...Is not [i]Great[/i] Machine. Is...[i]Not[/i]-so-Great Machine. It make good snow cone though." - Zathras
Comments
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[b][url="http://www.minbari.co.uk/log12.2263/"]Required reading[/url][/b]
Never eat anything bigger than your own head.
The Balance provides. The Balance protects.
"Nonono...Is not [i]Great[/i] Machine. Is...[i]Not[/i]-so-Great Machine. It make good snow cone though." - Zathras
------------------
'The future is all around us' G'kar
'I have no surviving enemies! None what so ever!' Galen
Visit my B5 site at: [url="http://www.nialb5.com"]B5 site[/url].
------------------
We Live as one, We die as one, We will face the darkness as one.
"Understanding is a Three Edged Sword- Your side, Their side, And the Truth...."
Think about it; If the Pope himself would give you a chest-strap pack of C4 and told you to make a suicide strike against the "great devil himself in that building over there", and gave you his personal guarantee that you'd get to heaven for doing that, would you?
I'm not certain I could reject that kind of an offer, at least not straight away. Which I should, just for the sake of the poor ol' Ethic.
Scary.
------------------
Life is full of surprises. The ones reserved for me usually come wearing brass knuckles.
------------------
[b][url="http://www.minbari.co.uk/log12.2263/"]Required reading[/url][/b]
Never eat anything bigger than your own head.
The Balance provides. The Balance protects.
"Nonono...Is not [i]Great[/i] Machine. Is...[i]Not[/i]-so-Great Machine. It make good snow cone though." - Zathras
Afganistan is going to get whats comming to it.No arguement from me.
------------------
We are here to place President Grenewetzki under arrest!
Using nuclear weapons of [i]any[/i] yield for [i]any[/i] reason would instantly demote the United states to the level of the terrorists, both in the eyes of the world and its own people. (Remember the stink people made over Desert Storm? Ever see footage of the protests - and the accompanying violence - against our involvement in Vietnam? Believe me, what would happen if we used nukes in Afganistan would make all that look like a minor argument in comparison...)
[This message has been edited by An ex-Squid (edited 09-14-2001).]
Unfortunately they are a Pandora's Box which has been opened. Their existance helps to stay the use by others, knowing that they will get equal or worse retaliation. The only way to rid ourselves of them is to come up with something more substantial as to render them obsolete, but... what would that be? Something worse, something we'll hate even more...
Obviously our enemies are changing, against terrorists, they are useless. Terrorists are willing to die so readily as it is. The problem is compounded by our fear that they will use ours, or those of some crumbling nation, against us in a terrorist act.
We used to be able to know our enemy, face him, and fight him squarely. Now we seek out a cancer that knows how to hide behind the skirts of many countries lack of concern beyond their own borders.
Somethings got to give... and when that happens, it usually isn't very pretty...
[img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/frown.gif[/img]
------------------
[b][url="http://www.minbari.co.uk/log12.2263/"]Required reading[/url][/b]
Never eat anything bigger than your own head.
The Balance provides. The Balance protects.
"Nonono...Is not [i]Great[/i] Machine. Is...[i]Not[/i]-so-Great Machine. It make good snow cone though." - Zathras