Steph,
My words seldom settle any debate, ask anyone in my family.
What parts of the
Geneva Convention are you referring to? If you are referring to The Fourth Geneva Convention, dated August 12, 1949, which addresses the protection of civilians in time of war, in what ways has it been overridden? It is a lengthy document, in excess of 22,000 words. I’m unsure of the particulars of your concern.
Evidence – facts – can be difficult to agree upon. That being said, when you assert the evidence is weak, and by implication, insufficient to substantiate the War on Terrorism, I feel that the following list, incomplete though it may be, and even containing errors (although I think it is accurate) does provide a plausible basis for the War on Terrorism. It goes back a bit, so I ask you to be patient with me.
In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into the US Embassy compound in Beirut. When it explodes, it killed 63 people. Six months later a truck carrying about 2,500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut and 241 US servicemen are killed. Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait. The following year, in September, another van was driven into the gate of the US Embassy in Beirut.
Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb explodes in a restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid. In August of that year a Volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into the main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main, and 22 are killed. Fifty-nine days later a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro is hijacked and we watched as an American in a wheelchair is singled out of the passenger list and executed.
Terrorists bombed TWA Flight 840 in April of 1986 that killed 4 and the more well known bombing, Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 259.
In January 1993, two CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
In February 1993, a group of terrorists are arrested after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people are killed and over 1,000 are injured.
In November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women. In June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 and injuring over 500.
There were simultaneous attacks on two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. They kill 224.
In October 2000, a small craft pulled along side the USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen, exploded and killed 17 sailors. Attacking a US Navy vessel is an act of war.
And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001.
These are terrorist acts against American interests. If necessary, other lists could be compiled to include similar acts against other nations.
In re differences of government policy as to the most appropriate way of addressing this threat, while the US failed to persuade France and Germany to participate in the overthrow of the Hussein dictatorship, it is inaccurate to suggest that “other countries” are not participating in the War on Terrorism.
I suspect that most of the Purple Hearts awarded are deserved.
As I suggested in my previous post, the capture of Osama bin Laden should not be the primary focus of the War on Terrorism. The nature of this conflict is not one which will be resolved by the incarceration of a figurehead.
“The economy” is an expansive reference. Are you referring to that of your nation? Mine? That of England, France, or Germany? The world’s? “In the shitter”? As the world economy is larger now than it was when the War on Terrorism was pronounced, perhaps some details are in order.