Jordanian pilot burned alive

[TedKennedy]

OK, you Hawks win. We need to go on over there, and put our boots on the ground. Who wants to lead? Who'll be bringing their son with them?

 

[dennishoddy]

I'm a 4th generation veteran, all of which saw action other than my dad that was in WWII on a repair ship in the pacific. No parent relishes their sons or daughters going to war.

If they choose to do so, it will be with my support.

I've said this before. I had an aunt that vilified me for volunteering to enter the Army in 1970. She kept it up until the day she died. The family was surprised when I volunteered to be a Pall Bearer. It was for personal reasons. I wanted to make sure I was personally responsible to help put her into the ground.
Freedom is a costly process. It will never get any cheaper.

 

[Glocktogo]

My position is simple. I don't know what the answer is, but I'm pretty confident it doesn't, right now, require the death of thousands more Americans nor should it require the death of thousands of innocent inhabitants of the cities and towns ISIL has captured. Comparisons to war against the country of Germany are mostly useless here.

I'm not really clear what your position is either, or more precisely, what your idea of a workable, sustainable and long term solution is.

My current position is that what we're willing to do as a country and what will actually work are two completely different things. What COULD we do? Well for starters, we could go dark on the subject till IS has completely taken Iraq and a couple of other countries in the region. We could wait until they’re a hundred miles inside Saudi Arabia and the monarchy is literally on hand and knee, begging us to save them. At that point, we could extract serious and significant concessions from the House of Saud on what they support behind closed doors.

By allowing IS to kill off all their sectarian adversaries, we’d be left with a population that is significantly like Germany was before we entered WWII. Overwhelmingly supportive of IS to the point that those few who aren’t, would secretly be in contact with us to provide intel and disrupt IS operations from behind enemy lines.

Our military might has simply masked the fact that we’re currently losing this war. It’s no different than Vietnam in that respect; a long, protracted limited war with no definable or obtainable objective (under the terms we’re currently willing to accept). Yet without a full and total war that we’re unwilling to accept, we’re merely treating symptoms, not the disease. We can either catch it while it’s sectarian violence and the occasional small direct hit on us, or we can wait until they’re done killing each other off and we’re in direct conflict. A conflict that will cause so much damage to the U.S. that we’re willing to declare a total war like we did in 1941.

This is not a religious war, it’s an ideological war. We’re losing. Are we going to do something about it, or just stand here and bleed?

 

[TedKennedy]

Don't forget the events that led up to our involvement prior to December 1941. I'd agree that something very similar is happening.

 

[JB Books]

Don't forget the events that led up to our involvement prior to December 1941. I'd agree that something very similar is happening.

Funny how that works.


Here's a solution: We, in cooperation with our allies, put bounties on these ****ers and send out hit teams to wherever they operate...Syria, Iraq, England, France, the Balkans...wherever. We simply eradicate them.

 

[120 Acres]

Funny how that works.


Here's a solution: We, in cooperation with our allies, put bounties on these ****ers and send out hit teams to wherever they operate...Syria, Iraq, England, France, the Balkans...wherever. We simply eradicate them.

I like it.

...and it would be cheap.

 

[Glocktogo]

Don't forget the events that led up to our involvement prior to December 1941. I'd agree that something very similar is happening.

We definitely did a much better job of provisional governance after WWII than we did after WWI. Hitler came to power on the wave of resentment and poverty the Versailles Treaty wrought on Germany. It just seems weird that we failed, then succeeded, then promptly forgot what we learned and have relied on even worse iterations ever since.

 

[kroberts2131]

I haven't read the whole thread but my stance is this one of two options:

1. Unleash the US war machine on these people. I'm a Marine Veteran and I'd go back in a heartbeat if asked. Most of my Marine friends feel the same way. And I'm not talking about a few quick battles then leaving them alone.......Go in and completely destroy them. Hunt them down and annihilate them. Leave with the smoke still rising from the ashes so they know exactly what we are capable of. When the kids of these terrorists want to attack America, that will be a reminder to them of what happened last time. No more politically correct wars. Let's make a statement. Yes, there will be collateral damage but that is the cost of war. These countries asking for help need to understand that.

2. Stay out of the middle east all together and let them sort it out. All in or All Out

 

[Glocktogo]

I haven't read the whole thread but my stance is this one of two options:

1. Unleash the US war machine on these people. I'm a Marine Veteran and I'd go back in a heartbeat if asked. Most of my Marine friends feel the same way. And I'm not talking about a few quick battles then leaving them alone.......Go in and completely destroy them. Hunt them down and annihilate them. Leave with the smoke still rising from the ashes so they know exactly what we are capable of. When the kids of these terrorists want to attack America, that will be a reminder to them of what happened last time. No more politically correct wars. Let's make a statement. Yes, there will be collateral damage but that is the cost of war. These countries asking for help need to understand that.

2. Stay out of the middle east all together and let them sort it out. All in or All Out

I'd be all for Option 2, but we'll evetualy have no choice. Not that in and of itself that's a bad strategy. It's certainly better than the one we currently have. Sadly, we won't do that, nor will we exercise Option 1. We have a peculiar knack for picking the absolute worst opiton available.

 

[henschman]

Funny how that works.


Here's a solution: We, in cooperation with our allies, put bounties on these ****ers and send out hit teams to wherever they operate...Syria, Iraq, England, France, the Balkans...wherever. We simply eradicate them.

Sounds good to me. I bet if you took up a collection right after 9/11, you could have come up with a pretty large bounty on some of these guys. I think there is a good opportunity for someone to set up a charity organization to solicit, collect, and administer money on these bounties.