Air Power Against Terrorists? A Reaction to Comments from Mike Savage.

Air Power Against Terrorists? A Reaction to Comments from Mike Savage.

Today I'm using T-Mobile from a bookstore for the first time. It is really something to be able to use a high-speed wireless connection to the internet in a bookstore any time of the day on this laptop that is so powerful and fast. When I think about what it was like to play video games and to write an insect identification key in basic on an Apple IIe in 1982... it's amazing to see how far things have come in 23 years. (Not to mention creating pictures with scan cards on the Commodore 64!)

I listen to a lot of talk radio while I'm driving around, and I make it a point to listen to people who have differing opinions because I like to keep an open mind and to be exposed to different perspectives. I was listening to Mike Savage last night on our local AM talk station and he was talking about the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq and what we as a nation are doing wrong.

Before I comment on one of his statements in particular, I need to say that I don't agree with very much of what Mike Savage has to say. In fact, I don't know if I've ever heard an opinion coming from him that I would feel comfortable supporting. If I thought that I had enough hours left in my lifetime to comment on everything that he has said that I strongly disagree with, I might consider trying. Thankfully, I don't have anywhere near enough time to seriously contemplate doing that - so I can stick to a few choice topics without guilt.

In yesterday's show, he mentioned that he thought that we should be using air power to bomb the enemy into submission in Iraq before sending our troops into harm's way. He said that air power was needed in order to blast these guys and weaken them before putting boots on the ground and effectively exposing our ground troops to unnecessary danger. He said that he couldn't understand why air power wasn't being used regularly to take these guys out.

Mr. Savage is either in denial about what the real situation on the ground is in the metropolitan cities of Iraq, or he is showing an amazing disrespect for the lives of the innocent Iraqis living on the same streets. He is also assuming that it would be acceptable for our military to bomb metropolitan civilian targets in a sovereign country with which we are not at war.

The War on Terrorism, sadly, is now synonymous with the War in Iraq. The true War on Terrorism, however, is also being fought by many nations all over the world on their home turf and outside their borders. We can't bomb the terrorists into submission when they're living in houses in crowded neighborhoods on city streets. Most of the time we can't even be absolutely sure who the terrorists are until the "boots on the ground" have had the opportunity to inspect a household and examine any evidence that might be found.

I wonder if Mr. Savage would support the military dropping bombs on houses in London where suspected terrorist activities were taking place. Would he support bombing terrorist suspects in any western country before sending in the police or the military? Would he be willing to allow this when the targets of these bombings would, quite possibly, be determined based on potentially faulty or incomplete intelligence information?

Unfortunately, the nature of this beast requires meeting it head on in its territory. We are facing an enemy that does not wear a uniform, does not respect international borders, and does not claim any one nationality. We must be careful as we set up a protocol for dealing with terrorists abroad, because in all likelihood they are already here in our country, and we will be dealing with them on our own streets and in our own neighborhoods next. I think that any means of dealing with terrorists abroad has to be handled in a way that we would find acceptable in dealing with suspected terrorists within our own borders. Why should the innocent civilians on the streets of Iraq be treated with any less regard than the innocent civilians in the "Homeland"?

I have seen some scary changes in our attitudes towards what is acceptable and what is not in the fight against terrorism since 9/11 which I would not have predicted. I certainly hope that we never get to a place where we are willing to treat the territory of another country, with which we are not at war, like a warzone when doing so means treating its civilians as if they were guilty until proven innocent, and predestined to become collateral damage by virtue of where they were born.

For a different slant on reality, you can find Michael Savage's website at:
www.michaelsavage.com