Not a mistake

Submitted by David Kwavnick (Canada), Jul 29, 2002 at 13:17

As a Canadian, I take the US government's comments on this action as a shameful vindication of my long-held view that the US can no longer be counted upon to back up its allies. The allies are now relegated to a spot somewhere behind other US foreign policy considerations - such as pandering to various Islamofascist dictatorships in preparation for an attack on Iraq. But that is a relatively minor consideration.

Should Israel have refrained from its hit out of consideration for the civilian casualties? That is, should Israel have told the terrorists that their strategy of hiding in civilian areas will pay dividends? Absolutely not!!!

And what right does the US have to criticize the Israelis? What were the civilian casualties in Afghanistan? Viet Nam? Hiroshima? Dresden?

Let us suppose that the US gets reliable word that bin Laden is hiding out in a house in the Afghan-Pak border area and is able to confirm it. The house is unreachable over land and anyway bin Laden would be gone as soon as it was clear that his location was known. The only way to get him is a precision bomb strike on the house. Problem: it's a big house and there are always 10 or 20 or 30 other people there including whole families. What does the US do: Let him get away for fear of collateral damage or take out the house and accept the collateral damage?

We all know what would happen. The house would be bombed out. So keep your Yankee yaps shut and start maintaining the confidence of your allies. The Islamofascists you are courting will turn against you the moment it suits their purposes, there are only a few of us that you can really count on.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".