FrankRep
03-07-2008, 02:14 AM
Policing the World Not the Job of Our Nation’s Military
The John Birch Society (http://www.JBS.org/)
March 6, 2008
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS:
U.S. naval vessels fired missiles into Somalia on March 2 in a strike aimed at a Kenyan man wanted as the suspected perpetrator of attacks on a Kenyan hotel and an Israeli airliner in 2002. Is this the proper use of our forces?
Follow this link to the original source: "U.S. Forces Fire Missiles Into Somalia At a Kenyan (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/world/africa/04somalia.html?em&ex=1204779600&en=43240a61a9932c9e&ei=5087%0A)"
COMMENTARY:
Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan has been wanted by the FBI since 2002 when he was linked to a suicide bomb attack at a hotel in Mombassa and an attempt to down an Israeli airliner at the city’s airport. The suicide bombers killed three Israeli tourists, 10 Kenyans, and themselves. The shoulder-fired missiles aimed at the airliner missed the target.
According to residents of Dhobley where Nabhan was believed to be residing and where the submarine-fired Tomahawk missiles were aimed, a house was hit, injuring three local residents and destroying a few livestock. Residents there now have a new reason to despise the United States.
The question has to be asked: Is it the task of our nation’s military to seek, find, and attempt to destroy a person suspected of attacks not directed at the United States? U.S. authorities claim that Nabhan is also suspected in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania that killed 200 and injured thousands. But the more recent attacks on the Kenyan hotel and the Israeli airliner were the main reason for the naval strike on March 2.
Waging a "war on terrorism" will never end. It provides an excuse for military operations and diplomatic meddling here, there and everywhere. It certainly endangers those who serve in the U.S. military and who are repeatedly tasked with missions that never would be authorized without claims they are directed at terrorists.
The United States has troops stationed in 130 different nations. They should be brought home. The purpose of maintaining a military force should be to protect the lives, liberty and property of the American people. Sticking our nation’s nose into disputes between other nations has seen us involved in recent years in Serbia, Pakistan, Israel-PLO, and a new "crisis" involving Venezuela and Colombia where we haven’t yet sent troops but have sent military supplies. Our Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has told the unpopular leader of Pakistan that we stand ready to send him whatever military help he requests in his questionable efforts to erase terrorist cells in his country.
As for the ongoing war in Iraq, just yesterday an American soldier died in a helicopter crash in the northern part of that nation. The helicopter happened to a Russian-made craft owned by the Iraqi military. What this latest casualty of the Iraq War was doing in such a circumstance has not been explained.
We repeat: Our troops should be brought home and used only for the role the American people expect of them and what they are willing to be taxed for, not for the role of policing the world they are now filling.
SOURCE:
http://www.jbs.org/node/7333
The John Birch Society (http://www.JBS.org/)
March 6, 2008
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS:
U.S. naval vessels fired missiles into Somalia on March 2 in a strike aimed at a Kenyan man wanted as the suspected perpetrator of attacks on a Kenyan hotel and an Israeli airliner in 2002. Is this the proper use of our forces?
Follow this link to the original source: "U.S. Forces Fire Missiles Into Somalia At a Kenyan (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/world/africa/04somalia.html?em&ex=1204779600&en=43240a61a9932c9e&ei=5087%0A)"
COMMENTARY:
Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan has been wanted by the FBI since 2002 when he was linked to a suicide bomb attack at a hotel in Mombassa and an attempt to down an Israeli airliner at the city’s airport. The suicide bombers killed three Israeli tourists, 10 Kenyans, and themselves. The shoulder-fired missiles aimed at the airliner missed the target.
According to residents of Dhobley where Nabhan was believed to be residing and where the submarine-fired Tomahawk missiles were aimed, a house was hit, injuring three local residents and destroying a few livestock. Residents there now have a new reason to despise the United States.
The question has to be asked: Is it the task of our nation’s military to seek, find, and attempt to destroy a person suspected of attacks not directed at the United States? U.S. authorities claim that Nabhan is also suspected in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania that killed 200 and injured thousands. But the more recent attacks on the Kenyan hotel and the Israeli airliner were the main reason for the naval strike on March 2.
Waging a "war on terrorism" will never end. It provides an excuse for military operations and diplomatic meddling here, there and everywhere. It certainly endangers those who serve in the U.S. military and who are repeatedly tasked with missions that never would be authorized without claims they are directed at terrorists.
The United States has troops stationed in 130 different nations. They should be brought home. The purpose of maintaining a military force should be to protect the lives, liberty and property of the American people. Sticking our nation’s nose into disputes between other nations has seen us involved in recent years in Serbia, Pakistan, Israel-PLO, and a new "crisis" involving Venezuela and Colombia where we haven’t yet sent troops but have sent military supplies. Our Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has told the unpopular leader of Pakistan that we stand ready to send him whatever military help he requests in his questionable efforts to erase terrorist cells in his country.
As for the ongoing war in Iraq, just yesterday an American soldier died in a helicopter crash in the northern part of that nation. The helicopter happened to a Russian-made craft owned by the Iraqi military. What this latest casualty of the Iraq War was doing in such a circumstance has not been explained.
We repeat: Our troops should be brought home and used only for the role the American people expect of them and what they are willing to be taxed for, not for the role of policing the world they are now filling.
SOURCE:
http://www.jbs.org/node/7333