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Israel-Gaza Megathread #1

This is a megathread for any posts on the conflict between (so far, and so far as I know) Hamas and the Israeli government, as well as related geopolitics. Culture War thread rules apply.

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But why stop there and leave out the fact that the next twenty years saw a massive belligerent overcorrection and self-destructive wars abroad? Wars that nobody, even conservatives who presumably voted for Bush twice and raked Obama over the goals for being soft on terror/homeland security, will currently defend? It's all too easy to see a future where Israel will regret the actions it takes over the next few months as the entire nation is baying for Palestinian blood.

Because our error was not extracting Afghani blood. There should not be a single tribesman ever associated with the Taliban alive today. The error of the US following 9/11 was caused by the same sort of people who sent out tweets from Biden admin accounts (SOS IIRC) calling for a ceasefire even before the raping in Israeli territory had stopped. Those people robbed us of victory in Afghanistan. The Y chromosome lineage in that country should look like there was a black death that affected only men. Baying for blood is not the problem, the problem is people who think that "civilians" actually exist in a theater where most of Hamas's military operations are based in schools, mosques, and hospitals.

The Taliban did not attack the United States. The leaders of the Taliban protected (and possibly assisted) the people who did. In hindsight, the US should have gone in, killed the incumbent Taliban leaders, held parts of the country long enough to kill the terrorists and destroy their camps (which was done early in the invasion, IIRC), and then left. Basically a massive punitive raid. Whoever took over afterwards would get the message that if you aid the enemies of the United States, the United States will kill you. (Said message could also be delivered by an actual diplomat if it didn't seem like the new leaders could connect the dots). No need to hold the place for decades.

Not nearly far enough.