IRAQI TERRORISTS….CNN just reported that we have busted up a couple of “terror plots” planned against us by Iraq. What’s more, we have discovered that Iraqi agents in 10 other countries are apparently planning attacks on “U.S. interests.”
Isn’t it time to stop calling these things “terrorist attacks”? I don’t know what these attacks are supposed to have involved, but we have invaded their country, after all, and blowing up the other country’s facilities is generally what you expect in a war. I don’t like it, but it’s no more a terrorist attack than were German U-boat attacks on the Eastern seaboard during World War II. It’s a war, after all, and the other guys should be expected to fight back.
On the same topic, why are we surprised at the guerilla tactics employed by the Iraqis? Granted, dressing as civilians and flying phony white flags violates the normal rules of war, but if it were Iraqis invading, say, Tennessee, and the situation were desperate, is there any doubt that the citizenry of this country would be doing the exact same thing?
UPDATE: Mark Kleiman thinks I’m completely off base in my last paragraph. And he’s right: soldiers dressing as civilians and flying phony white flags is unforgivable. As he says, “If a white flag doesn’t mean what it says, then surrender is impossible, and all war must be war to the last soldier.”
So no, it’s not justifiable. But ? I still wonder if we wouldn’t do the same if we were in a similar position against an overwhelmingly superior enemy. Hopefully we’ll never have to find out.
