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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Highway Hoss: [QB] [QUOTE]Originally posted by Nim the Fanciful: [qb]But I thought "The Siege" managed to keep the debate very clean, with Tony Shalhoub as a counterweight muslim to the antagonists of the movie, used very wisely as a lesson to the west that "there are other muslims than the fanatics". As a palestinian, Shalhoub's character got in a few good licks in on the israelis' persecution of them in Israel (the civilian palestinians, that is). The movie also showed, through outright critique by General Deveraux (Willis) that the army was a blunt instrument where precision attacks by antiterrorist special forces was required. Considering that this movie was made three years prior to 9/11, I think it is a brilliant entry in the debate, it received far to little accolade.[/qb][/QUOTE]Good point, Nim...I am rather suprised no one has brought this movie up in the context of current events. The problem here is that our current military strategy is simply not designed for fighting terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda. THe majority of our military doctrine, strategy and tactics is still geared toward a third world war, with huge conventional battles. As [URL=http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0511-13.htm]this article[/URL] notes, the current administration's so called "War on Terror" (a meaningless phrase, since you cannot wage war on emotions or states of mind) has ended up hurting us more than helping us. Overwhelming force is meaningless in this context of war because using such force ends up too often backfiring on its user (The Vietnam War has several notable examples of this). The best way to wage such war is not simply by military force or intelligence work; it must also include a political strategy that has awareness of what fuels support for these terrorist units. For many Arabs, for example, a lot of their hatred for the US comes from several factors:[list] [*]Our unqualified support for Israeli policies, even if they violate UN resolutions. [*]Our support of what they consider corrupt, tyrannical regimes. [*]Our stationing troops in the Mideast, especially Saudi Arabia. [/list] Any strategy to deal with Al-Qadea must address these issues at some point, for it is the resentment that they fuel that drive Arabs and other Muslims to support such groups. Bush's show of support for Rumsfeld in the wake of the furor over the release of the Abu Ghazi report, for example is considered by many Arabs as an implicit show of support for the US Military's way of runnning those prisons. This is something that a number of US Army and Marine Corps officers are addressing: they are discussing the evolution of what they are calling [URL=http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/4th_gen_war_gazette.htm]"Fourth Generation Warfare."[/URL] Such discussions are meant to discern how war may be waged in the future. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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