Of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In the case of the Afghans, we've never gone to war with Afghanistan. The Taliban, yes, for sheltering terrorist. Al Qaeda, YES, for BEING terrorists. Cloak it any way you like, but in this case we've not infringed upon the inalienable rights of anyone in the region. The WTC bombing WAS carried out by religious fanatics over a matter of solely religious significance.
In the case of the Palestinians, matters are a bit more complicated. Frankly, to all reliable reports, the Israelis have never in fact committed the sort of intentional mass slaughters that they are regularly accused of (often with no evidence), and what civilian casualties ARE incurred are done so accidentally during military operations. Whether those operations themselves are in fact just is another matter entirely, but the simple truth is that the Israelis don't drive tanks into towns and start killing anything that moves.
The various terrorist brigades cannot make the same claim.
Talk all you like about the founding of the United States, but there is NO comparison. During the Revolution, despite the fact that we we're facing what was arguably the most powerful army in the world, without any real trained forces of our own, we never indulged in terror attacks on civilian targets. We didn't sail brigs loaded with gunpowder into British harbors for the purpose of slaughtering the populace. And secondly, automatic weapons, katyusha rockets, and all sorts of other fun things are present in the Palestinian arsenal. Not just rocks and bombs.
The various terrorist brigades cannot make the same claim.
Incidentally, automatic weapons, katyusha rockets, and all sorts of other fun things are present in the Palestinian arsenal. Not just rocks and bombs. Why did Israel occupy the Golan Heights? They got tired of having civilians get shelled in the middle of the night.
Are the Israelis correct in their actions? No. But they've been pushed a little too much. You can only poke a bear a set number of times before it gets irritated and eats you.
Are the Palestinians correct in THEIR actions. No. Considerably less so than the Israelis, I might add. Terrorism will alienate the only people that can help them at this point. They want support from the West, they need to try something new.
Non-violent resistance. At the moment, at least in the US, Israelis are the "good guys". And every terrorist bomb that explodes in a crowded street makes them look even better.
As it is, the situation is almost ridiculous. Palestinians complain about checkpoints. Checkpoints exist to make life difficult for terrorists. They complain about retaliatory strikes. They claim that THEY'RE the ones making retaliatory strikes. If so, they'd be far better served by going after legitimate targets, rather than buses and night clubs. They complain that Israel has interfered with their self-governance. Their officials have basically been proven to have ties to terrorists. The whole thing is one collosal mess, and while neither side is "right", the Israelis at least have the virtue of restraint.
Finally, there's the matter of intervention.
And we all know how well THAT works.
To successfully intervene in any of these situations, we'd need to do one simple thing: Conquer the countries in question. Nothing less will suffice. Smash them flat, and rebuild from the ground up. And unfortunately, the world won't stand for that. Hell, I won't stand for that.
