FBI broke law for years in phone record searches

[142EBC]

Originally Posted by merrylander

Picture this; our soldiers are burdened with a 150 pound pack against others in loose robes out there in 120 degree heat. Much better to use aircraft and large bombs. Oh but innocent people . . . Do you ever stop to think about innocent cockroaches when you call in the exterminator? Hard hearted? No simply practical, spilling the blood of our young men and women when there is a cleaner alternative is simply wrong.

As politically incorrect as this sounds, I must agree. Unfortunately, war is not clean, war is not sanitary. War sucks (I've been there, done that, got the scars to prove it).
I have to wonder; the amount of innocent civilians killed by homocide bombers, etc. vs. the amount that would have been killed if we could fight this war in a way that would be swift and effective, such as suggested by Merrylander... which would be less?
There is no good answer for this. It's a no win situation for someone. And I don't condone killing or disregarding innocent civilians. It's an ugly situation. When I was in Iraq my goal was PEACE, not killing. Unfortunately, VERY UNFORTUNATELY, that is not always a viable alternative.
One thing I always try to keep in mind: we know what we learn from the media. The facts shared behind the doors in the Oval Office and Pentagon are not always what can be shared with the general public. When decisions are made that seem unreasonable, stupid, unfair, etc., I try to remember that what I know is only a fraction of the complete story.
I wish I had the right answer...???
Mike

[finnbow]

At the risk of providing a trite response to a serious question, one way to beat terrorists is not to let them terrorize us. Consider for a moment that the best that Al Qaeda could do recently was send over an impressionable young nimrod with PETN in his skivvies. If such an (unsuccessful) act can elicit a response whereby we greatly diminish our own civil liberties and expend trillions in lives and treasure in the process, they win. If we invade a country like Iraq without justification, they win even bigger. Unfortunately, I think one could argue that bin Laden is playing us like a fiddle.