Should we stop the war during Ramadan?

[WriterDom]

Mohammed won one of his greatest victories during Ramadan. Anwar Sadat launched the Yom Kippur War during Ramadan. In eight years of war, Iran and Iraq never stopped fighting during Ramadan. And the Afghans have not paused for Ramadan during their civil war.

But radicals in other Muslim countries will use the attacks to stir more protests and resentment.

 

[Problem Child]

Sure. Let's send them some M1A2's and F-16's just to make it fair, while we're at it.

 

[April]

No, I don't think we should stop for their holy period, as I'm sure they would not stop for anyone else's.

 

[CelestialBody]

 

[morninggirl5]

Sure, stop bombing during Ramadan and stop dropping emergency rations to feed them too. Oh wait, that wouldn't be humanitarian of us would it?

Nevermind, guess we'll just have to keep bombing them.

 

[Problem Child]

We do halt battles for Christian Holidays. Hell, we halt everything for Christian holidays. I have to get my days approved if I want to take off for a Hindu holiday. This year chat, the most pure of all poojas done in my region of india falls on the day as Thanksgiving. I wouldn't be able to go under any circumstances unless it did. None of my friends have trouble taking off because of Easter or other holiday. Do I think we should halt for a month? No, do I think that some degree of respect should be maintained? Yes, there has to be some literature on which days are absolutely necessary to keep the peace.

Sorry CB, but although there are some nice anecdotes about German and American troops singing Silent Night together across enemy lines, we have never had a habit of paying much attention to ceasing hostilities during religious holidays. We've tried it occasionally, but then somebody always gets nervous and fires a mortar over the lines and the whole thing breaks down.

The Battle of the Bulge raged on during Christmas in WWII and we bombed Hanoi during Christmas during the Viet Nam war. And you know damn well that the terrorists are salivating at trying to catch large groups of people together and ruining Christmas for us, so why would we cut them any slack?

Religion and religious zealots are a big reason why we are where we're at. Fuck religion.

 

[shadowsource]

I didn't vote....

because my option wasn't listed. Of course, war doesn't stop for religious holidays (Ho Chi Minh launched his great offensive during the Vietnamese Tet), let alone ones that last a month.

But for PR reasons, I hope our planners use better judgement. Hitting the UN depot twice was a bit much. I expect we'll bomb a bit less, hopefully with better execution.

An aside: A lot of people I know are despairing that we haven't won yet. I suppose the Pentagon encouraged this TV thinking with their wild success claims while we bombed empty runways, but this is a war in a tough place against very relentless enemies. I said from Day 1 that it would be very hard, that we couldn't bomb them into submission as they have so little to lose. I fear that our success against Milosevic with the bombing of Serbia & Kosovo (the first and only war won from the air) has led people to think this won't get messy. It will and must get messy.

Another aside: They government looks really stupid re the anthrax, but I'm delighted that whoever did this (and I think it was al-Queda) sent so little and taught us so much. We're a hell of a lot better prepared than we were a month ago!

 

[luv2tvl69]

Should we stop the war during Ramadan

Absolutely not--if they care so much about the religious holiday they shouldnt attack other countries around that time.

We need to finish the job once and for all. War is not fair, war is not pretty, war has casualties--both innocent and guilty. Its a fact of life. We need to keep the pressure on and totally finish it without backing off. It may take longer than expected but it is a just action we are taking. We are the ones on the defensive here...we must set the precedent for any others that may think we are soft and will let them get away with attacking us.

 

[REDWAVE]

Stop the War!

There is no question we should stop the war now-- should never have started it in the first place. This is an unjust war being fought to control the oil in Central Asia, and to justify repression at home. For more on my views on this and other subjects, visit my political website at
http://www21.brinkster.com/redwave69/

Peace & Love,

REDWAVE

 

[shadowsource]

I looked at the thread -

As a leftie, I concur that it's really sad what killing thousands of civilians and sending anthrax in all directions can do to pacifism and civil liberties. Let's crush al-Qaeda and go back to debating the deeper points of our society's direction.

But the thread's claim that the post dotcom crash is the big crisis of capitalism is old Marxist emiseration fever. There's always a new crisis....

 

[Guest]

While we are at it why don't we let the Taliban trick or treat on Halloween. What the hell? They fight during their own "holiest" holiday, and they sure as hell kill non-muslims during other people's holy holidays, so if we are at war there are no 'nice' periods.

One thing that pisses me off is the Muslim people saying that Islam is not about violence. I know, Christianity has had periods where they are every bit as guilty of killing people in the name of their God, but it seems Islam needs to address why people who kill in the name of their religion are tolerated. Why did it take this event for a bunch of Muslims to say terrorists do not speak for their religion?

Muslims are crying that we need to be tolerant of their views and their religion, but they are not tolerant of any other religion.

At the same time Muslims are saying Islam is not violent and that it teaches peace just listen to what they are saying about Israel. They want the Jews to turn over the country to the Palestinians and get out. Many of them say the Jews should be "swept into the ocean." They promise war if this does not happen. A Palestine that shares land with Israel is not acceptable, they say. Well, their religion might not teach violence but they sure as hell do.

The majority of Muslims also say that America is morally bankrupt and that Islam is the only solution for the West. If the way they act in their own countries is an indication of the "solution" then I want no part of it.

 

[miles]

Hold Your Horses

I think it's time we all took a couple of steps back, try to understand what our Taliban neighbors are feeling, and re-examine our mission before too many lives are lost on both sides.


Naaaaaaaaaaaah.

 

[morninggirl5]

Check this out if you think we should observe the Taliban's religious holiday.

http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/south/10/28/pak.christian.shooting/index.html

Their sympathizers can go into a church and kill Christians in Pakistan, and that's okay. So, we can continue to bomb them during Ramadan. It's time to use their rules instead of ours.

 

[sigh]

it strikes me that if we continue to fight this war in an "ethical" manner while our opponents feel no such constraints, then we've unfairly stacked the odds against ourselves

osama must be throwing up in his beard from laughing so much

if we're going to fight this war (and honestly, as much as i deplore it i see no other option) then by god let's fight to win, and this time finish the job

 

[Azwed]

Would people stop talking about oil and afganistan. As far as I know afganistan has no oil. I mean I would have to ask my dad to know for sure, but I don't belive they have any.

 

[CelestialBody]

Unregistered

 

[Problem Child]

Re: Unregistered

PC-

I didn't say it should stop for a whole month, once the campaign began, it was obvious that that wasn't an option. However, it would make more sense to intesify the ground campaing during that month and shift the focus there. I should have been more specific in a reccomendation.

I've got a better idea. Let's let the military fight the war. They're much better at it than the politicians, or the press, or you and I.

 

[CelestialBody]

 

[sigh]

Would people stop talking about oil and afganistan. As far as I know afganistan has no oil. I mean I would have to ask my dad to know for sure, but I don't belive they have any.

i'm sorry azwed, but i must disagree...america's arrogant attitude toward the entire middle east, culminating in decades of theft of oil, has led to the region's understandable mistrust of our motives...and the bitter hatred a few of them hold for us

osama himself is a saudi, and his hatred of america is based upon our support of israel, and our gluttenous appetite for mideastern oil...and though he's hiding now in afghanistan one of his chief supporters is saddam, and the only reason we became involved in the gulf war was because our source of relatively cheap oil was threatened

if not for oil interests, this would not be happening...you simply can't separate our history of medding (regardless of the justification) in mideast oil from the tragic events of today...without oil we'd pay no more interest in which people in the middle east were raping and toturing their neighbors than we do genocide in africa...we pick and choose which regions of the world to take an interest in very carefully, and the reason we are in the middle east is because of oil

 

[WriterDom]

If I were a saudi, I'd encourage our gluttenous appetite for mideastern oil.

 

[sigh]

well sure, NOW you would, because it'd make you stinking rich (assuming you were the right saudi, with the right connections)

but long before any saudis got rich off their oil, americans did

 

[JohhyReb]

Tet, 1968.
Cease Fire declared.
Their holiday.

Yeah that worked out just fine.

 

[JohhyReb]

Keep going.

Tet, 1968.
At least we won that one.

 

[tigerjen]

No break

In this time of war, we give no break.......we want a
swift finish to this........we still fight, even if its during a holiday!
happened in WWII.....Vietnam....etc. etc.

NO excuses! We fight until this war is over.

 

[April]

Swift finish? Ha! No way is that going to happen.