Morality

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

I used to think that - that the only role of the military is defensive and within our borders. The problem is that the enemy doesn't play the game by these rules. The game is always on, even when we aren't playing. In fact our failure to play becomes a part of the game and our apparent principles can be played against us.

That's all logical UT, but the flip side is that we piss people off who were just sitting on the fence when we go throwing our weight around in the world.

The failed female suicide bomber in Jordan who was caught a few days ago had what she probably thought were good reasons for becoming a terrorist. All her brothers had been killed by the US in Iraq. I imagine the brothers already hated the US to some degree and when we went into Iraq they were more than happy to take up arms against the hated foreign oppressor. But it's rare for women to be getting into this action. I bet that this sister would never have strapped the bombs to her chest if we hadn't pushed her there by killing her brothers.

It's difficult to tell if we are creating more terrorists in Iraq than we are killing. It looks to me like it's very close, and it's quite likely that we are creating more than we kill. It seems to be a bottomless barrel of terrorists/insurgents in Iraq.