War Or Covert Operation?

[Josh]

Should we goto war with the country that harbors this terrorist group or just extract the terrorist leader and attack the group itself?

 

I say we send in the ninjas.

 

[uncouth]

Covert Ops a la "SwordFish"

 

[Harvey]

Those are not mutually exclusive actions.

 

[Josh]

<< Those are not mutually exclusive actions. >>



?

 

[gqstyle09]

i think what harvey means is that covert ops would be nice, but would also result in some kind of taliban retaliation, which would ultimately result in war anyways

 

[Nexx]

They can only be defeated in one way, using their own methods. A huge military campaign will only make others agressive toward the USA, creating additional terrorist organizations. We dont want that!

 

[Harvey]

Josh -- It means one action does not preclude the other. We can do both, if that is the best plan.

 

[Looney]

They can only be defeated in one way, using their own methods

So we should be bombing innocent civilians?

First, like Harvey says, we'll be using both... you can't exactly send in a couple of special ops team into hostile territory the size of Afghanistan and hope that they locate and extract Bin Laden... that's like saying we should send in a SEAL team to get Saddam.

 

[CocaCola5]

We will use both. Special forces will be extremely active in this campaign than Desert Storm, its a different kind of war, virtually no armor targets and forces are "uncommitted" meaning the enemy aren't committed any some particular area. The analogy I would use is like, the SF will be the sniff dogs and the main troops will the rescuer, standby until led to move in.

 

[Nexx]

"Their own methods" related as to being covert...
I simply can't see what good a big army would do there, who would they fight?
What must be understood is that there's no coastline or anything to push the target back too, they can withdraw forever, crossing into countries like Tajikistan (1,206 km border), Turkmenistan (744 km border) or Uzbekistan (137 km border).
Don't forget, Bin Laden and his party will know of every big move by the army, since it'll be closely monitored by the media.

 

[Josh]

If we kill innocent civilians we would be just like terrorists.