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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rrufff who wrote (9612)	4/23/2004 5:12:55 PM
From: Thomas M.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20773

Dale's question wasn't really that complicated: Can you cite any cases around the world where assassinating terrorist leaders actually defeated a terrorist movement or insurgency? Tom

To: rrufff who wrote (9612)	4/23/2004 7:15:53 PM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 20773

I don't see any indication that killing leaders is "efficient" at stopping anything. The current level of violence after so many killings is higher, not lower than years ago. Like the Colombian drug cartels, new groups fill the vacuum if you take out a few bodies currently in command. Capturing Saddam and the rest of the deck did not reduce the insurgencies in Iraq either. I am not saying it shouldn't be done as an act of legitimate warfare - just that it clearly never turns the tide of a low-intensity conflict, not among the many I have studied. And I don't think the post-9/11 world is that much different from pre-9/11 except in the minds of Americans. But that's a point where we can disagree.