9/11 THOUGHT: I wrote this two blogs ago, in January of 2002. I thought it was true then and I think it’s true now.
In the aftermath of the attacks on the United States, this quote comes to mind...
"War is upon us, none can deny it. It is not the choice of the Government of the United States, but of a faction; the Government was forced to accept the issue, or to submit to a degradation fatal and disgraceful to all the inhabitants. In accepting war, it should be 'pure and simple' as applied to belligerents. I would keep it so, till all traces of the war are effaced; til those who appealed to it are sick and tired of it, and come to the emblem of our nation, and sue for peace. I would not coax them, or even meet them half-way, but make them so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it."
William T. Sherman, letter to General H.W. Halleck, September 17, 1863, in William Tecumseh Sherman, Memoirs of William T. Sherman, p.364
I found this while looking for Civil War information; it seems to me that Uncle Billy had the right idea. When fanatical nutjobs of any religious/social/political ilk realize that the price of harming Americans is their complete extermination, and that we will hunt them down anywhere in the world in order to destroy them, then we and the rest of the world will have little to fear from terrorism. As for the regimes that use these fanatical dupes as their catspaws, the example of Afghanistan and Panama should be held up and used as an example of what happens to states that cross us. The Saddam Husseins and Robert Mugabes of this world are not legitimate rulers; they are thugs whose power literally flows from the barrel of a gun. Our diplomats should quietly remind them that we have the biggest guns in town, and that on occasion we will topple some of the more egregious members of the thugocracy. These guys are big believers in job security, especially their own; letting them know that we can pink slip them whenever we want to will keep them quiet.
In the aftermath of the attacks on the United States, this quote comes to mind...
"War is upon us, none can deny it. It is not the choice of the Government of the United States, but of a faction; the Government was forced to accept the issue, or to submit to a degradation fatal and disgraceful to all the inhabitants. In accepting war, it should be 'pure and simple' as applied to belligerents. I would keep it so, till all traces of the war are effaced; til those who appealed to it are sick and tired of it, and come to the emblem of our nation, and sue for peace. I would not coax them, or even meet them half-way, but make them so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it."
William T. Sherman, letter to General H.W. Halleck, September 17, 1863, in William Tecumseh Sherman, Memoirs of William T. Sherman, p.364
I found this while looking for Civil War information; it seems to me that Uncle Billy had the right idea. When fanatical nutjobs of any religious/social/political ilk realize that the price of harming Americans is their complete extermination, and that we will hunt them down anywhere in the world in order to destroy them, then we and the rest of the world will have little to fear from terrorism. As for the regimes that use these fanatical dupes as their catspaws, the example of Afghanistan and Panama should be held up and used as an example of what happens to states that cross us. The Saddam Husseins and Robert Mugabes of this world are not legitimate rulers; they are thugs whose power literally flows from the barrel of a gun. Our diplomats should quietly remind them that we have the biggest guns in town, and that on occasion we will topple some of the more egregious members of the thugocracy. These guys are big believers in job security, especially their own; letting them know that we can pink slip them whenever we want to will keep them quiet.
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