It would be better to whittle- but I'm not sure all the world's terrorists are rational enough to whittle- do you think so? It seems to me that the enraged are per se irrational, and are prone to stinkin' thinkin' (that's a nod to Stuart Smalley of SNL). The USA could see some very irrational thinking, itself, on the part of its leaders were we to be nuked- but I'm not sure irrational terrorists are going to worry about the irrational decisions the US might make reactively- after all, many of those terrorists are willing to die- if they take us with them, in a flaming blaze of glory, will they care what we might do in reaction? I don't think all of them will. I think some of them might do whatever they can, however it might enrage us, and then take the consequences as part of the great battle against the US, and if they are all wiped out in the aftermath, they will have the satisfaction of knowing that at least they stood up to the evil Satan of the US.
I think the only way you can work against folks like that is lessen the perception that you are fighting them, in any way you can (to diminish their base of recruits) and work like hell on defense. Not sure how successful that will be, but it beats the other alternatives- imo, of course. |
