What should President Bush do next?

[EMINEM]

[ 09-17-2001: Message edited by: EMINEM ]

[C Elegans]

MM! How are you? I've been wondering what you were the last days. Did you get my mail?

I'll reply to your question soon - however, from your post I understand why you came out as left libertarian in the political test

[EMINEM]

Originally posted by C Elegans:
<STRONG>MM! How are you? I've been wondering what you were the last days. Did you get my mail?

I'll reply to your question soon - however, from your post I understand why you came out as left libertarian in the political test </STRONG>

Hey CE, nice to har from you! Yeah, I got your mail. Thanks so much! Did you get mine? If not, I said essentially, "Take as much time as you want to reply." I've been glued to my television set during the days and pulling the graveyard shift at night. And yeah, I was categorized Left Libertarian much to my shock and dismay (then again, who wasn't?). I had expected to be right of Reagan and Thatcher. Oh well.

[Aegis]

@MM: Actual, by Bush preparing for war, that would do two things. Instill a sense of fear (somewhat) in the Middle-east (which they should direct more to Terrorists, not the countires) and prepare to rebuild the econmy. If the states goes into a state of war, the same thing will happen thats happened in every war for the past 1000 years. War efforts would be issued, and military products will be made in excess, thus it would rebuild the economy. Unfortunealy, once this potential war would end, the States would eb abck to their current finacial state.

Although, I (something tells me I might regret this) agree with you, and that they should go about this differently. They should befocusing on finding the terrorists that did this, but not to prepare for a war on the entire Middle East. At least they should find some evidence as to who did it, then make the nessescary moves to combat things.

[C Elegans]

I got your "take as much time as you want" mail, but then I sent you another mail like 3 days ago, which you obviously haven't recieved. Just wanted to check you were OK since I hadn't seen you here and you live in DC.

Re: human origin discussion: Sailor Saturn and I agreed to put it aside for a while, since we both felt it wasn't really important right now. Better to resume it later.

Now, to answer your question:
I would suggest to Bush that he focus on the intelligence and diplomatic parts of the war, rather than the military part. Continue to build up good relations and collaboration with the Arab states, especially those who have problems with terrorism and those who are likely hideouts for the terrorists.
Collect evidence against the responsible organisations, and present them to Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries suspected of supporting terrorist groups on a governmental level. Use the military force as a negotiation advantage (read: threat) rather than sending missiles and soldiers.
And I would also suggest Bush to connect the operation to UN. All countries in the UN Security Council are already supporting the US, so this would be a piece of cake, just a few words with Annan and a formal vote. A clear UN support would make it easier for the goverment of countries like Pakistan to act in support of the US. A global, unified action supported by several Arab states, will hopefully minimise the risk for a continuing cycle of violence.
And last but not least: make a clear statement that Israels current acting is not acceptable. The US support of Israel is the root of much hate, and right now, Israel is acting very immoral IMO, and the US would gain a lot of goodwill in the Arab world (and Europe!) if they clearly state they are not supporting Israels recent attacks on Palestinian territory.

[Sailor Saturn]

In some ways, I agree with CE's answer to your question; but I do not totally agree. I agree completely with Bush's statement/decision to make no distinction between the terrorists and those who harbor the terrorists. Attacking areas that are highly populated by civilians should be avoided as much as possible. The problem with this is that then, the enemy starts putting their military bases and such in places where it is impossible to attack without killing civilians. You see this on a much smaller scale in stories(i.e., Artemis Entriri(sp?)'s use of Regis when escaping from Drizzt in Streams of Silver and the Green Goblin's use of Mary Jane Watson in the Spiderman cartoon). I do not agree that all is fair in war. It is necessary to "fight dirty" sometimes, but that doesn't make it any less unfair. Anyway, I believe it is necessary to threaten the country that is harboring the terrorist behind this attack and to show the necessary military presence to make it known that it is not an idle threat. This follows the principles of a basic US law. If you harbor a fugitive, you become an accessory to the crime, thus you are tried and, if convicted, punished for helping the criminal(if this was a willing act). You are given the chance to 'defend yourself in court.' If you were being forced to help, you might get off. If it was Bin Laden(and last I heard, it was still unsure) and Afghanistan won't hand him over and even go as far as to protect him, they should be given every chance to change their minds and hand over Bin Laden. However, if they continue to refuse, it reaches a point where it must be proven that the threat mentioned early was indeed not an idle threat. It must be made known to terrorists, and the world, that we will not be scared into giving up our freedom.

God Bless The USA by Lee Greenwood~
<STRONG>I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died to give that right to me. And I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today. Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land. God bless the USA.</STRONG>

[Sailor Saturn]

"all" who? The terrorists? The arabs? The Middle East people? "Kill'em all" is, no offense, narrow minded and solves nothing if you don't know who "all" is. This is not about revenge. It's about justice. The line drawn between revenge and justice is a narrow one and different people draw it in different places. That is why there are so many viewpoints on this issue.

edited due to content of quote--

[ 09-15-2001: Message edited by: T'lainya ]

[Shadow Sandrock]

terrorists. Die die die.

[Sailor Saturn]

Originally posted by Shadow Sandrock:
<STRONG>terrorists. Die die die.</STRONG>

This brings up another problem. How do you know who is a terrorist and who isn't? Do you think the people at the flight school that trained a few of the terrorists how to fly knew that those guys were terrorists? There are just too many variables to know for sure which decisions are correct. Even when you look back with "20/20 Hindsight" you don't know for sure that things would've been any better.

[Shadow Sandrock]

You win

[scully1]

Originally posted by Sailor Saturn:
<STRONG>This is not about revenge. It's about justice. The line drawn between revenge and justice is a narrow one and different people draw it in different places. That is why there are so many viewpoints on this issue.</STRONG>

I agree. I think people forget or don't realize that even such a horror as war can be carried out with a sense of justice, rather than with revenge, anger, and hatred. This realization is indeed very, very difficult to achieve.

[Shadow Sandrock]

I agree 100%... I see your point.

Post #100 ^_^

[T'lainya]

Hi everyone,
I deleted a post for content and edited a post that quoted it. Please remember this is a public forum. Please watch what you post.

[Shadow Sandrock]

Ah, gomen...

Forgot.

I don't think all people from Afghanistan are bad... just the terrorists are bad. ~_~;;

[Sailor Saturn]

Originally posted by T'lainya:
<STRONG>Hi everyone,
I deleted a post for content and edited a post that quoted it. Please remember this is a public forum. Please watch what you post.</STRONG>

No offense, T'lainya, but I don't think it was necessary to edit the quote out of my post. Without the reference of what I was replying to, my post doesn't make as much sense...would you please put the quote back in? Or allow me to put the quote back in...?