2001-10-26 - 10:15 a.m.

Another rant, this time about impatient americans, and cluster bombs

Let me just say one thing.

People in this country are stupid. (Or maybe it's just the media, but I ranted about them yesterday.)

I know we have the big, bad high-tech military.

I know we are considered to be the "only remaining superpower".

I know we have gotten used to military conflict by proxy, superiority through pushing buttons.

But *this* is ridiculous.

This from Reuters:

"With the United States failing to achieve a dramatic military or political breakthrough after almost three weeks of intensive air strikes ... Some in the United States had expected the Taliban to buckle and more internal opposition to spring up in Afghanistan as U.S. warplanes steadily dismantled Taliban military power. But that has not happened ..."

Of course it hasn't happened. The Afghans held off the Soviets for *ten years*. We can't go in and drop a few bombs ...

(by the way, did you know we're dropping cluster bombs in Afghanistan? Unexploded bomblets are adding to the danger already posed by landmines in Afghanistan. (NPR had a spot about the fact that something like one quarter of all the deployed landmines in the world are in Afghanistan, but I can't find a link.) Personally, I think cluster bombs are wrong and evil. I know other people who agree. I'm writing my Senator and Reps about it. Join me?)

We can't go in and drop a few bombs and expect the Taliban to just go tits-up. These are tough, determined people. They are not going to give up easily.

This war is not going to end in just a few weeks. This war is going to go on for a while.

And the people who thought it should be over my now?

Stupid, or at least misinformed.

That's all I'm saying.