NY Post: " HE WHO HESITATES"

[midnight armadillo]

....
Make no mistake: There can be no compromise in Fallujah. If we stop one inch short of knocking down the last door in the last house in the city, our enemies will be able to present the Battle of Fallujah to their sympathizers as a great victory: They fought the Americans to a stalemate (with the implication that, next time, the Americans will be defeated and driven from the Middle East).

Of course, we could defeat them. We know that. But in the broken world between the Bosporus and the Indus, seductive lies trump hard facts. Our insipid diplomacy plays into the hands of our enemies: It looks like cowardice. And it is.

We must not only win, we must be seen to win, graphically and decisively.

"Experts" warn that we mustn't alienate the hard-core Sunnis or the fundamentalist Shia's. Wake up and smell the cordite: They're already alienated. They'll never love us. So we'd better make damned sure they fear us.

We must win. If the enemy fights from mosques, level the mosques. If they fight from hospitals, gut the hospitals. If they open fire from orphanages, turn them into blackened shells. We cannot allow terrorists any sanctuaries. The men we face - and the watching world - interpret our decency as weakness.

The diplomats have had their chance. Now it's time to fight....

Read more by the bloodthirsty Ralph Peters at the NY Post.

[oblivious]

1. he says, posting directly from the NY insane asylum

[Supormom]

2. Level the mosques?

That ought to win over the hearts and minds of the people!

[rooboy]

3. Funny how columnists like this get jobs...

I've never seen a want ad ever advertise for a fuckwit, but somehow they keep getting hired.

[Direckshun]

4. He's got the right idea, if only he wasn't using a sledgehammer...

...to type out the damn article.

One thing I do not approve of this administration doing is sitting across the table from the insurgents. It's like rewarding them for being too much trouble for us to handle. This only encourages more Iraqis/terrorists/others, in order to get fairer deals from the U.S., to cause enough damage and trouble in Iraq in order to get to wheel and deal behind a table.

I think the troops need to flex their muscles in Fallujah. I think they need to take decisive control over the area, no questions asked. But I don't think it will be necessary to literally burn down the city or send messages through unnecessary violence.

[bpilgrim]

11. pfft... that's what they ALWAYS SAY

we have been getting TOUGH and they STILL want their COUNTRY BACK, apparantly, go figure.

unless you are suggesting the FINAL SOLUTION why do you think even more violence is the answer?

the more we kill and NOT NEGOTIATE - remember imperial japan? - the LONGER the fighting will continue.

what if we take out 1/2 the city and they still fight back?

then what?

peace

[MrBenchley]

6. When Murdoch first bought the paper

he elevated the race-track tout to political columnist.

[SeveneightyWhoa]

5. Holy crap!

I'm reading this guy's book right now (no, I didn't buy it).
He doesn't come off as this vicious or Hitleristic anywhere else so far. Maybe old age and Bush are creeping up to him?

[MrBenchley]

7. Yeah, that's the problem...

You got to punch the tar baby HARDER!

[DinahMoeHum]

8. That asshole does not understand that what's happening in

Fallujah is turning into a major propaganda victory for the Iraqi opponents to the occupation and especially for al Qaeda / Osama bin Laden.

In such a war, the political fight is more important than the military fight. Military victory cannot exist without political victory.

Whatever happens, US forces lost before it even began.

:nuke:

"...every battle won is just another grain of sand,
When you're white boots marching in a yellow land..."

- Phil Ochs

:nuke:

[CJCRANE]

9. Fascist drivel n/t

[bemildred]

10. I certainly hope Mr. Peters is willing to volunteer his offspring.

If he has any. He's right in a way, it is already a propaganda
disaster for the empire, but he is wrong that it can be fixed.
If you nuke them you just make it clear that you can't be trusted
with nukes.