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The military termonology for first strike means the same thing as the boxer when he says that he has to get off first. The first strike is a preemptive strike which seeks to cripple the enemy so that he won’t be able to hurt you.
A first strike is probably necessary when war is eminent. When it is obvious that war can’t be averted and your enemy is strong enough to cause you some serious harm you probably need to hit him first.
The first strike must have devastating effects so you must hit him hard. You need to have good intelligence so that you can take as much of his offensive power as possible. You don’t want to leave him with anything that he can use to hit you back. It must be a total surprise. If he senses that a strike is coming he will be able to save some of his assets from destruction or strike you first.
A classic first strike against the United States was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Another was the terrorist attack of Sep 11th 2001. These both met many of the conditions of the successful strike but they failed in that they didn’t do any permanent crippling damage to us. The Japanese should have hit shipbuilding facilities also. They hurt us for a minute but not enough to kill our ability to retailiate.
The Sep 11th attack was just ill advised. It made a statement but obviously they did not think the consequences through before the attack. It didn’t gain them any status in the world community. It just served to cause us to start fighting back. http://www.militaryringexpress.com
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