Charles M. Madigan’s article “We could get killed here” (Perspective, Aug. 23) accurately points out what a horrible experience it is for anyone on the ground when missiles land.
The effect of these retaliatory strikes against terrorist bombings in Kenya and Tanzania is rather difficult to comprehend. Imagine how you might feel toward a country when, coming out of a frightened and dazed state, you see the carnage a Tomahawk missile can do to your neighborhood. I rather doubt the average citizen in Afghanistan or Sudan had even the slightest idea why the United States fired these weapons of mass destruction at his country in the first place.
It plays right into the hands of the terrorists’ propaganda machines–it’s not very hard to garner anti-U.S. support for terrorist recruiting when you’ve just been bombed by a battleship thousands of miles away. When is our country going to learn that methods like this will not work? Have we learned nothing from Vietnam?
The cowardly bombings at our embassies must be avenged, but it must be done in a manner that shows we truly have learned our lessons from the past. History shows many people responsible for acts of terrorism against the U.S. have been silenced. This was not due to firing missiles at innocent civilians.
There are many methods to be used in combating terrorism. Many experts say this will be the way of war for the new millennium. The methods used militarily must be nothing but the harshest method possible. Find the responsible parties and eliminate them quickly. Military personnel must be used. Either go in with a clear understanding that nothing short of total elimination or capture of the responsible parties is the goal, or do not do it at all.
Our country must learn that halfway measures will not work. It only makes for confusion and anti-U.S. sentiment.
I wonder if the grieving families of the dead suffered in the bombings in Kenya and Tanzania feel vindicated by missiles killing innocent women and children in Sudan and Afghanistan. I know I would not!
