Monday, February 28, 2005

Are nukes the worst?

Hearing the news about the suicide bomber in Iraq who killed 100+ people and injured 100+ more got me to thinking... What's worse? Nuclear weapons in Iran, or this "asymmetrical warfare" that's taking such a terrible toll?

While the instantaneous effects of a nuke are clearly worse (tens or hundreds of thousands of people killed), the insidious effects of asymmetrical warfare — if it's successful — might be a larger problem than nukes in the long run. After all, if some rogue country (take your pick) actually decided to use a nuke, I'm pretty sure that that would be the last significant action of whatever government employed (or supported) that action. The world would be shocked into taking concerted action, and they wouldn't be dilly-dallying about. With terrorism (the unfancy name for asymmetrical warfare), this obviously ain't so. The effects keep on going and going and going. It's bad enough for us to read about it, or to see video clips — but try to imagine what it must be like to actually live in the midst of this, day after day. It must be extraordinarily disheartening...which makes me admire the spirit of everyday Iraqi even more. Despite the well-known fact that the terrorists are targeting the government job recruiting centers, and especially those in Shiite areas...the people still keep lining up for those jobs.

No comments:

Post a Comment