Once the innocent victims of the attack on Libya pile up, that will quickly delegitimise

[howard112211]

the rebellion in the eyes of many Libyans. What people fail to understand is that we are not "fighting Ghaddafi" here. We are fighting a military that is loyal to him, in a country in which a significant part of the population is also loyal to him, with likely another significant fraction of the population who are unpolitical but slightly pro-establishment and pro "quiet life". What started out as an uprising against a dictator with a certain degree of legitimacy in the eyes of many Libyans can potentially quickly turn into "those people who brought the foreigners in who wrecked our capital.".

Recipe for disaster.

[wtmusic]

1. I suspect they'll compare the Ghadafi pile to the US pile,

see the Ghadafi pile is significantly higher, and fight on.

[howard112211]

2. I don't think human psychology works that way.

But feel free to be optimistic.

[indepat]

4. God, just how macho is it to kill people on the ground with sophisticated million-dollar missiles

launched from the air or afar? :patriot:

[wtmusic]

6. Using Bowie knives would bring home the horror of it

but "macho" shouldn't really be part of the equation, should it?

[CJvR]

8. It is hard...

...to Bowie someone when you are not allowed to be on the ground.

Besides given the huge body count the western groundforces routinely get when the jihadists in Iraq and Afhganistan, or a regular arab army, tries a standup fight the old "western cowardice" argument is getting a bit, well - old. Really it is only a thinnly cloaked hope for enough western casualties to reverse a policy that one disagrees with.

[CJvR]

7. Yeah...

...it is so much more macho to wall them up in dungeons and leave them to die.

[TahitiNut]

9. "Stand-off" weaponry started with the bow-and-arrow.

Humanity (or an approximation thereof) has always sought ways to kill that permitted the killer to avoid a confrontation with what might offend his/her "sensibilities."

It is far easier to indoctrinate the average human in the ways of killing when the indoctrinated could avoid both confronting the results and exposing his/her own butt. The Air Farce has always attracted the "I'm a mini-god" types ... launching his god-like wrath on the ground-crawlers while being physically and mentally "above it all." It's no accident that it's the service that attracts the (Old Testament) 'Evangelicals' and putrid types like Duhbya.

It takes far more effort to excise all the vestiges of empathy and compassion from a normal human being in order to convert them into a ground-pounder (infantry). In a (self-selecting) "professional" military, those relatively few without such attributes find a 'home.'

Viet Nam veteran ... been there, seen it.

[howard112211]

10. Take a look at how Americans responded to 9/11.

A good reason to criticize the policies of the leadership somehow morphed into approval ratings soaring.

[dipsydoodle]

3. I think most Libyans are likely to be pro "quiet life"

The rebels do not seem to be substantial in any truly significant number.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[quinnox]

11. No, because our bombs are magical and don't kill

innocent civilians. Our bombs are quite amazing in that way.

No innocent civilians have to worry when we use our war tech.

The only folks who are killed are insurgents and terrorists, in other words, bad people

{Sarcasm}

[bobbolink]

12. Funny, that's what they are saying on Faux now.

[howard112211]

13. Really? I don't watch that channel. But I was assuming they would be "Rah Rah Rah".

[bobbolink]

14. I was held "captive" yesterday, and it was amusing.. everything that Sirota was pounding on

was echoed on Faux.

Just FFT (food for thought).