Ralph Peters says we have to take off the kid gloves in Iraq, if we're to have any hope of pacifying it:

Our "humanity" is cowardice masquerading as morality. We're protecting self-appointed religious executioners with our emphasis on a "universal code of behavior" that only exists in our fantasies. By letting the thugs run the streets, we've abandoned the millions of Iraqis who really would prefer peaceful lives and a modicum of progress.

We're blind to the fundamental moral travesty in Iraq (and elsewhere): Spare the killers in the name of human rights, and you deprive the overwhelming majority of the population of their human rights. Instead of being proud of ourselves for our "moral superiority," we should be ashamed to the depths of our souls.

Didn't they take the gloves off at Abu Ghraib?

It is very easy to suggest taking the gloves off from
a clean organized bedroom office in Florida, it is
much more challenging to do that in a land where,
you don't know the factions, you don't know the
language, you don't know the culture and you don't
know the people.

4 years, you have been beating the war drums, simberg,
do you know 10 words in Arabic? Is it important to
know the language of the terrorists?
It is very easy to call names, it's much harder to
actually work on the problem.

Didn't they take the gloves off at Abu Ghraib?

No, Anonymous Moron, they didn't. They didn't come close to doing the kind of things that Saddam did there. Not that I or anyone is advocating that, of course.

It is very easy to suggest taking the gloves off from a clean organized bedroom office in Florida

And it's even easier to pollute web sites with nonsense behind an anonymous screen name.

Is it important to know the language of the terrorists?

Oh, yet another idiotic ad hominem argument.

No, what's important is to have trusted translators.

Are you saying that no one should have advocated war against Japan and Germany in World War II if they didn't speak Japanese and German? Do we have to acquire another language each time we're attacked before we're allowed to respond? Do you have any idea how stupid you appear to my readership?

If you insist that anyone commenting on the war must learn the language of the enemy, that would certainly shut down public debate. But then, that's perhaps your goal.

No Arabic, sadly. But I did learn three new words in Turkish from an old Firesign Theater album: bath, towel, border...

1. jihad
2. kuffar
3. sharia
4. taqiya
5. hudna
6. mujahadin
7. intifada
8. fatwa
9. islam
10. koran

Do I get my authorized to opine certificate now?

"And it's even easier to pollute web sites with nonsense behind an anonymous screen name."

Oh SNAP!

People like Ralph Peters disgust me. I can practically see him sitting at his computer with a bulge in his trousers as he watches gun-camera footage of exploding Arabs.

Does Ralph Peters realize that the occupation ended 2-1/2 years ago and, thus, it's not up to us (assuming his "we" and "our" refer to America)? It's not clear from the excerpt.

Mike

Simberg

For someone who seems to encourage all kinds of war,
what have you done, personally to help?

Do you volunteer at a VA hospital?

Do you translate Arabic newspapers or websites?

Do you buy Liberty Bonds?

Have you joined the National Guard?

War requires shared sacrifice if it's going to be won.