First strike and your out!

[Tobiasly]

Originally posted by seer
Why didn't we attack some country when the USS Cole got bombed?

Because, as Maggie is trying to point out, defending oneself means taking measured responses to perceived threats. Sometimes that means attacking back, or attacking beforehand, and sometimes that means something else.

In the case of the USS Cole, it appears that, in hindsight, security in that instance may have been a little lax. So we took steps to correct that. Now that we have had a massive attack on U.S. soil, we see that we've miscalculated the threats that other groups pose.

Don't let tw's tangents fool you, he has plenty of facts to back up whatever he says but tends to be quite selective in the evidence he presents. Anyone who thinks our big beef with Iraq is due to revenge is sadly mistaken. There is no way that W would start a war against a middle eastern country because of pride. He simply doesn't have that kind of standing to be able to pull it off without good reason.

Of course they're not gonna come out and publicly disclose the evidence we have, but you can bet we'll share it with our allies. Many of those allies are rather cool to the idea right now, which makes the burden of proof for the Bush administration that much more.

If our country took as passive a position as you endorse, we would have fallen long ago. But don't worry, those of us who are in the military do our job regardless of people who second-guess at every turn. In fact, we do our job in order to protect the right of people to second guess at every turn. So you can feel safe to ride your hydrogen-powered bike and talk about how wrong it is to defend our interests.

That is one area where I agree with you.. fuck oil. I can't wait until we develop a viable alternative to fossil fuels, so all these countries who have accumulated so much wealth and power simply because they happen to be sitting on a big pile of dinosaur juice will fade away and actually be forced to work for their world standing.