Targeted Bombing May Not Root Out Taliban

Unfortunately, the Taliban forces are not sleeping in barracks in large bases just waiting for us to lazily come along and blow them to smithereens. Every night they go home to their families knowing full well that if they are killed, it will be called an attack on civilians.

Don’t get me wrong, I abhor war, but I am an American and I stand with my countrymen and women until the end, whatever course we take. We have chosen to take these guys out. When we land troops, there will be a good many to oppose us, hiding with their families. Whenever a stray round may kill one of them, we will be condemned for killing civilians. War is the end of political diplomacy, and this end happened when they took out our towers and we bombed their strongholds.

Miguel Rosales

Cerritos

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M.E. Turbow’s Oct. 18 letter complains of the headline “Errant Bomb Hits Housing Row in Kabul.” Now The Times should only glorify the bombing, ignoring an occasional lapse that kills the innocent Afghan citizen. This kind of arrogant “America the great” indifference to our slaughter of the innocents is compounded by Turbow’s statement that our pilots must fly high to avoid being killed themselves; i.e., precious American lives must be saved at all costs. Here the cost is a few hundred poor Muslims who have no voice, so what red-blooded American would possibly care? So the hatred of America builds.

Robert W. Lovell

Huntington Beach

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When the U.S. military says it will not target civilian sites, it gives Osama bin Laden and the Taliban great relief and purpose to hide in bunkers beneath the mosques and holy sites of major Afghan cities. A “holy war” is a declaration of war against the U.S., its citizens and interests. That term invites civilian targets and holy sites as permissible military targets. Just tell the terrorists that their immediate families become targets too. Stop this nonsense of solely striking military targets and caves, because Bin Laden and the Taliban were given places to hide on a silver platter by the U.S. military.

Raj C. Patrao

West Hollywood

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Afghan aid, food, medicine and shelter need to be available only in areas secure from the Taliban, to prevent the aid from being diverted to the Taliban war effort. If Afghan citizens drive the Taliban from their area, they should receive aid.

Jim Ketcham

Malibu

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Both Arianna Huffington’s “Politics by Polls Led Us Astray” and Jonathan Power’s “U.S. Has Put Itself Out on a Long Limb” (Commentary, Oct. 18) demonstrate that the U.S. is long on might and short on sight. We understand the machinations of technology but little of culture. There can be a better way to handle this conflict. Do we have the vision to do it?

David Berke

Sherman Oaks