Quote:
Originally Posted by spence
I'm sure some are quite thankful and getting letters like that must be personally very gratifying.
But in the context of this specific issue we're talking about a much less educated population with a more primative social and economic strucuture.
Do you think the people protesting are making a reasoned cost/benefit decision about their actions?
I'm not refusing to not call anyone out for unecessarily violent behavior, although the point might be so what if someone does?
Do you think a verbal lashing by Obama over their behavior is going to talk some sense into them or just reinforce the image of an imperialist presence which helps the Taliban?
No, it's a quite rational position. If the perception is that you're anti-Islam, it makes sense to ensure you correct actions that reinforce this perception...however wrong it may be. Otherwise you're going to spend all your chits on the stupid stuff instead of when you really need them.
The point of all this is to help the Afgan government maintain some sense of stability so they can further develop their own security aparatus. If a little PR is necessary to help get past a bump in the road that would seem to be in line with the mission success.
As usual, you're seeing the issue you want to see rather than what's really at the heart of the matter.
-spence
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"Do you think a verbal lashing by Obama over their behavior is going to talk some sense into them"
I don't think Obama, nor anyone else, can convince these sociopaths that a few pieces of paper are not worth more than dozens of human lives. This is where you ALMOST stubled into the truth. In my opinion, if somepne is willing to kill innocent people over the loss of a piece of paper, that psycho needs to be dealt with. You, on the other hand, want to coddle the psycho.
And a lecture from Obama about why human life is worth more than a piece of paper? While such a lecture will have no impact on Islamic fanatics, it would at least give peace of mind to the families of murdered servicemen that the commander-in-chief realizes that the atrocity here WAS NOT that paper got burned. Rather, the atrocity was the murder that followed. Obama is telling the fanatics, by apologizing, that the accidental burning of a book warrants death.
"I'm not refusing to not call anyone out for unecessarily violent behavior"
Funny, since you still haven't called anyone out for violent behavior.
"you're seeing the issue you want to see "
As usual, you could not be more wrong. When Islamic extremists kill innocent servicemen because somepone else accidentally burned a piece of paper, THE VERY LAST THING I WANT TO SEE is my president apologizing to the murderers. What I want to see is a cruise missile shoved up their aszz.
As usual, YOU are the one ignoring the facts that don't serve your agenda.
"to help get past a bump in the road ..."
A bump in the road? That's what you call the mass murder of completely innocent US servicemen? Those guys suit up every day to keep yuo safe, and all they ask is that you show some shred of respect for the sacrifices which they answer the call to make. Sacrifices which, I'll wager, you're not nearly up to the task of making...
I cannot fathom a sitting US President apologizing to those who murder US Servicemen. It's stupifying.
Spence, it's too bad for Hitler that you weren't the US Secretary Of State in 1940..."Heck, if we need to let him cook a few million jews in order to placate him, who are we to say he's wrong? Since we cannot explain to Hitler why his actions are wrong, let's instead apologoze to Hitler for all the bad things the Jews did to his master race, and then we can all get along."