Keshik said:
It's an ugly business and if you can't stomach what it takes to protect our way of life, then you shouldn't think about it. You step on the big dog's tail, he bites you. Hard.
You bring up an interesting point here. It seems to be that the core question is How far into barbarism are you willing to go to defeat the barbarian? The problem with this is of course that you are getting into the idea that we need to act out the same way.
The war on terror is not a conventional war in any way shape or form. We are essentially fighting an ideological war. If we turn ourselves into barbarians (using the example above, I do not mean to insult you or your argument), we are showing to the people that in fact we are no better than the Taliban. If indeed we went to war to protect our way of life (which I whole heartedly agree with as far as Afghanistan is concerned), then how can you say that we should throw away our way of life, our way of thinking when we start fighting for it. What is the point of fighting if, in fighting, we lose what we are fighting for? We give up a civil liberty here, deny a right there, and all of a sudden, we are no longer a beacon of hope and instead, become an imperialistic power.
Now I will not say that America should be fighting a politically correct war. If a situation arises, I expect our military's leaders to make a judgment call. I also expect them to live with the consequences of that judgement call. If it turns out to be baseless and it was obvious at the time that it was baseless, then that leader should have to pay that price. However, if that piece of info might have saved lives or did save lives, then the leader should be commended.
