[Fwd: Iraq Dispatches: Inside Abu Hanifa mosque during attack

[Jaron Omega]

On Wed, 1 Dec 2004, boblq wrote:

> On Wednesday 01 December 2004 10:20 am, JD Runyan wrote:
> > boblq wrote:
> > > Here we agree. I think we should enlarge that chink not ignore or
> > > abolish it. I can see an extension of the Geneva Conventions that
> > > within a millennium or two would lead to the concept that War itself
> > > is a crime and that those who pursue when found guilty are given
> > > sentences appropriate to that crime.
> >
> > How do you stop, capture, punish someone who is waging war?  I suggest
> > that you engage them in war, and defeat them.
>
> In a word, overwhelming force as a preventative. You stop them or
> contain them before significant damage is done.

You know, this blurs the line of justified military action.  People
tend to be skeptical of preemptive decision making.  Why send a military
into a soverign nation, if they have yet to do anything to justify
the assault?  You might agree, processing nuclear fuel rods as just
cause for preemptive force, but some may not.  Where would you draw
the line?  How many nations must be taken over?  How many civilian
lives lost before it's clear something needs or should be done?  One
civilian dead?  A leader that seems to have a hard ball attitude?
Let's invade his country, he must be taken down!  Problem here, is
the world wouldn't see it that way but see us as conquerors.

> Thus war prevention becomes police action.

And people hate the police.

> Think about it a moment. It has been about 100 years since there
> has been a major war on the North American continent. Why is that?

Pacific and Atlantic ocean.

> We already have this problem with the ordinary police in our cities.
> Ask why the "peaceful" USA has the highest per capita incarceration
> rate in the world.

It is obvious as we also have the highest crime rate.

Omega