Faust,
I think you more than overestimate what a U.S. reaction would be over an Israeli assassination of Arafat. There IS a reason neither the US or Israel have not already put forth an armed response to Arafat. Simply put, if you assassinate Arafat this whole thing moves from a simply political struggle, confined to the region, to a more widespread struggle on a religious level. Why? Let's cover it, Arafat is NOT only an important political icon, he is a religious figure as well. So the simple aspect of assassinating the man is not an astute option in this case.
Now, let's say for the sake of conversation that the Israelis did decide to eliminate Arafat from his mortal life. The probable ramifications would be tremendous on a more global level. First, you justify everything the man stands, you make the man a martyr. Rather than lending credibility to the mans ethos and justifying his cause, which could turn into a larger more global movement, which in turn would write the man into the history books for eternity, you would think an alternate solution would be optimal. The second thing you have to understand about assassination of a key political and religious figure is that you now not only have to play ball in the political park of the region, you now have to come to bat in the religious arena. Here is where shit get HAIRY in this region. As you well know, this region in particular is a hotbet for fanatical islamic extremists. These extremists hold sway over the masses in the area. So if you turn the situation to the religious side (more than it already is) you are going to have all out war. Don't think for one instant that nuclear warfare will not result as a consequence. Now you're probably going to ask me what a bunch of oil wealthy Arab nations would be doing with weapons of mass destruction, right? We already know Saudi has them. We know Jordan has them. Hey, we even know Egypt has them. So, if you are a radical fundamentalist government and you have a duty to your very god to defend your bretheren in times of RELIGIOUS persicution, do you use every means you have to destroy the threat? Back to the technical matter at hand. Israel has assassinated Arafat, causing a huge religious outrage and certain countries immediately go on the offensive and attack Israel. Let's even say the Arabs have CONCRETE proof that it was Israel that killed Arafat, this just makes the argument too juicy to resist. So now the Arabs are at war with Israel and the US steps in to handle the situation. The American people cry outrage, especially the Muslim sect and capital hill comes alive with activity. In the meantime the mighty US military begins to hand the Arabs their asses. Guess what time it is now? Naughty time! The Arabs, now willing to give their lives to the last man, launch nukes. Mind you these are not god damn scud missiles, these things actually have state of the art targetting and tracking capabilites and a tremendous rate of speed. In the end game the region becomes a glass factory, the muslims globally uprise millions of people have just bought the farm, the has possibly even been a nuclear strike that hit the unites states itself and all for what? Because some "moron" decided Arafat (the mild nuicance) was a bigger problem than he really is. So I think aside from some minor initial interference, if Israel were to cause a war in the middle east the U.S. would make them take one for the team and move to consession with the Arabs. In fact, our own congress would likely tie our military hands and put a stop to any significant and longstanding presence in the conflict. Israel would lose WAY more than they would gain. Thus, Arafat will not be assassinated so long as he remains in power and does nothing to justify the action to the global community.
You see, Flee, though not so particular or articulate in his response, had a very good point. Unwittingly he was right...
Imagine that, the great Faust is wrong and must concede to the fact the Flee, the very person he just called brainless, just chalked one up against him.
Go ahead and debate this response but I am going to tell you like you just told Flee. You better think hard about the retort because if you fail to bring adequate information to back up your reply, I will shred you in front of god and everyone. Also, please refrain from calling a person "son" in what you seem to deem an intellectual response to someones previous post and intelligence on a subject, it only makes you look like the "dumb fuck."
Leave a message, I will get right back to you <img src="/~stretch/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
Flee: 1 | Faust: 0 |
