i know some people who were cheering for the IRA during the troubles, and i'd bet some of them contributed money... but i've never seen any evidence the US gov't was supplying any covert help, and i think trouble with the Irish is something the UK pretty much brought upon itself
but let's try to get beyond "you're another" arguments and see what's really going on
it's an old saying but true... one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, and where better to see that in afghanistan?
i have no problem with our decision in Oct 2001 to go after al queda, and when the taliban decided to keep sheltering bin laden, they reaped the whirlwind
but as soon as we decided to stay in afghanistan, i can't blame the afghans for doing exactly what they did to the russians for ten years... and when they were fighting the russians, we didnt just praise them as brave freedom fighters, we supplied them
but while any people who have foreign troops on their soil are likely to resist... and have a
right to resist... walking into a marketplace with a bomb vest and killing whoever is nearby is as evil as bombing a village from 10,000 feet
what we really need is a definition of Legitimate Resistance with standards of behavior for both sides... if a resistance force and the occupying army just kill each other, that's what they both signed up for... it's "non-conventional" war, but war nonetheless... and both sides should be held to account for killing of non-combatants, even though in the fog of battle it is impossible to completely avoid "collateral damage"
and as crazy as the idea of "laws of war" sound, nations have tried to adopt them and follow rules of engagement for one basic reason: anything you do to the enemy, he can legitimately do to you... anything you don't want done to you, you should try to prevent your soldiers from doing... the trouble with non-conventional war is expanding this dynamic to non-State forces, when the logic of guerilla war is to avoid open combat
but when we recognize that sometimes WE will support a resistance force using guerilla tactics, we need that common framework
today, we can look back at WW 2 and make movies about iwo jima from both sides' point of view, honoring the service of both...i have friends who fought in vietnam... the amount of hurt they carry varies, but most have a degree of respect for the VC and NVA they went up against as tough, brave men... and if the pattern holds, i expect with a few decades worth of perspective, we'll see the same thing for our iraq and afghan wars... i don't see a future in which war is eliminated from human conduct (would that it was so)... but there have been times when combatants had a clearer vision of what is legitimate combat and what crosses the line
now, back to damsels in quicksand
