I don't believe a war against terrorism is any more winnable than our war against drugs, poverty, or crime. I am confident we can win a war against al-Qaida--the terrorist network responsible for attacking innocent Americans on 9/11, but a war against terrorism is a quagmire.
If you mean a war against all terrorism, everywhere, I agree. If you mean a war against terrorism that poses a specific and serious threat to the US, I don’t agree. I think we can win that war if we keep our objectives achievable, practical, and sequential. We just have to focus on the real enemy, and choose tactics and weapons appropriate to the nature of the fight.
How do you wage and win a war against an ideological concept unless you are able to eliminate every single individual espousing such ideas?
You don’t. Fortunately, we don’t have to. We are not at war with an ideological concept; we are at war with a small group of people that has twisted an ideological concept into a vehicle for their own personal ambitions. That’s a winnable war.
Sometimes it is the perception which is just as important as the reality and if the majority of the world thinks we need to reassess our Mideast policies, it behooves us to listen even if we may not like what we hear.
With this I agree, mainly because I believe that both our policies and the manner with which we implement our policies are making it easier for our enemies to maintain their positions. This amounts to supplying your enemy with ammunition, generally recognized as a tactical error. |
