The source, the solution, the villains, the heroes, the beginning, and perhaps the end, of this latest terrorist challenge to civilised life all come from Pakistan
War is not the solution.
Let's take this to a logical conclusion.
Suppose we went to the UN and got everyone in the world to agree to go to war against Islamist Facists.
We get the green light to do whatever is necessary to rid the world of Islamist Facists.
We get the green light to kill every Islamist terrorist and their friends and relatives. Would that rid us of Islamist terrorists? I don't think so. I think you would have to kill every potential Islamist terrorists. Even that would not be enough. You would really have to kill anybody who is a Muslim.
Would that end terrorism?
I Don't think so. The list of potential terrorists for an endless list of potential causes are endless.
The world is now flat. Any small group of unhappy people can cause a great deal of harm.
Making war and spending huge amounts of money on weapons, weapons systems, and armed forces has not been successful in ending hostilities.
We have to try something new. Something different.
The exposure of terrorists in London clearly shows that large scale military action is not the solution.
Local intelligence and traditonal police action is far more efective in fighting terrorism. And somewhere along the line we have to get to root causes.
As an example, instead of spending $400B and potentially another $600B dollars in Iraq on waging war - suppose we used that money and spent it on strengthening the Lebanese Government, co-opting the Palestinian Authority, and rebuilding Iraqi infrastructure (water, electricty, restoring oil production, and securing the streets).
Obviously my proposal is not well thought out, but then again what we have been doing is not well thought out. What we are doing is an utter failure. Waging war is not cutting it. We have to rethink everything. |
