Terrorists are criminals. Period.
If I want to catch criminals I use the police and not the army. For a simple reason, to avoid doing more damage while catching the criminal than he poses a danger in the first place.
Extreme example:
Crime rates in LA are high and my fellow countryman Arnold, aka The Terminator
, decides to do something about it. He starts bulldozing districts with high crime rates using tanks thus killing a lot of criminals. In the course of this destruction a lot of innocent people (also from neighbouring districts) lose their homes and fall below the poverty line. Some of them become criminals (some for the money they lack, some because they now hold a grudge against society). So Arnie starts taking out mob bosses with Apache helicopters thus eliminating them but also destroying more homes and killing innocent people. LA citizens begin to riot. Arnie orders firing in the crowd ... and eventually carpet bombs LA.
facit:
problem solved - mission accomplished
of the millions of dead people some already had it coming (they were criminals from the start) some made a wrong choice (the became criminal in the course of events) and some wer completely innocent all the way.
In addition to the lives lost there's also a lot of economical potential going to hell, etc.
Now I know this is over the top (that's just my cynical self
) but the bottom line is "violence breeds violence"
There's a reason they don't teach recruits how to become "Dirty Harry" or "John McLane" in police academy and it's not about ethics, but about effiency and law.
A hand-grenade is not an appropriate weapon for self-defence, a gun is.
I'm not saying do nothing, but respond appropriately in the manner of a country with a modern and working justice system.
my 2c
[ 05-24-2004, 06:02 PM: Message edited by: Faceman ]