Random Rant: The War on Terror
The current US approach to the "War on Terror" is to use military force to fight terrorism. Not many people have really questioned this approach... after all, a tooth for a tooth, right? But what people have not realized is that their is a prior model for this approach to the War on Terror: Israel. Israel has been using military force to retaliate against terrorism. They have been blowing up terrorists for years and years. And you know what? There's still suicide bombings in Israel. There's still terrorist attacks. Israel's nuclear weapons haven't stopped it, let alone their tanks or missiles. Do you really want America (and thanks to J.Howard, Australia) to become a larger Israel?
The reason that military force doesn't work is, in Buzzspeak, "collateral damage". Or more bluntly, the deaths of innocents in their thousands. The 30,000 or so Iraqis killed by the American invasion had families, friends, and spouses. Even if every Saddam loyalist was slain in the invasion, America would still be having problems in Iraq. The reason? Grief and anger change people. Normal people can be turned into killers by grief. The families of the Iraqis killed by collateral damage are not going to sit and rest until they think they've exacted justice. Their friends will form organized groups to fight the occupiers, which would evolve into new terrorist groups. But not all Saddam loyalists were killed. Nothing short of flattening Iraq to nuclear wasteland would do that. So the old guard recruits the angry families and friends, even changing those who would not have become resistance fighters to terrorists. And a new cycle begins. You see how terrorism works? No "War on Terror" can ever be won. A new option needs to be found.
What other option is there? The anger needs to be fought. The grief needs to be fought. Remove the anger, and the terrorists no longer have new recruits. Remove the anger, and you win.
You know, it's strange how well a quote from Star Wars fits here:
YODA: "Fear leads to anger. Anger... leads to hate. Hate... leads to the Dark Side of the Force"
Now think of terrorism as the dark side of the force. Right now, most people in the Middle East are either scared of the Americans, angry at them, or terrorists. Remove the fear, and you end the cycle.
How to get rid of the fear? Perhaps less violent reprisals and retaliations might just work?
posted by TheLoneAmigo @ 10:45 am
14 comments
14 Comments:
I came here from Joseph's blog, the one with the Aragorn background.
You're right — military force never solved anything. Except perhaps for things like (1) allowing white people to settle in Australia (2) punishing the Japanese who bombed Darwin, Australia (3) killing and negating the influence of Hitler. And those are weighted in Australian favor. Unless you be very satirical, I'm sure that you would not approve of the fact that war kept Stalin from advancing farther and ended the Soviet bloc.
Anyway, look at Israel today. Yes, they had a few bombings recently. But these were the first in how many months? And that's because of the big wall that they put up. If we in America were to be surrounded by people who don't even recognize our right to exist, we'd do well to put up a wall too.
I didn't say war has never solved anything... I did say it's not going to solve and hasn't solved terrorism, but I'll go over your examples point by point.
(1)Civilization
War didn't give humanity civilization. Civilization existed before large-scale wars ever occured. WW2 shaped today's world, but did not give us "civilization". Civilization is too nebuluous a concept to argue about, anyway.
(2)Liberty
Yet again, another nebuluous concept. I'm not even sure which war you're referring too, but it's probably the revolutionary war. You know, British subjects had quite a bit of liberty before then, thanks to the Magna Carta. But it might not have been enough for you. But think for a second. What was the original reason for the war? "Taxation without Representation". Think about Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands for a second. When's the last time you saw a Representative or Senator from there?
(3)Solved Fascism
You seem to have reiterated the same point twice, but maybe you're referring to Japan. The war would have been won without the Bomb(guess which nation is the only nation to have used NUKEs against an enemy? You guessed right... the good ol' US of A), but they needed to be kicked out of their asian territories for certain.
(4)Communism
No way. Communism was defeated by itself, by Western economic strength and the fact that "people like to own stuff". The problem with Communism is that it creates a huge poverty group. The problem with the Soviet Union is that it was a lot like a fascist state. The Soviet Union collapsed due to economic weakness. Did you see armored columns riding into Moscow? No? I'll tell you why. There's no way the Soviet Union could have been defeated militarily without having the Midwest turn to a glassy plain.
And before you say something about the Vietnam war? That was a failure. The Korean War? A success, but it really did nothing to stop the global Communist movement. The Korean War was also authorized and organized by the UN.
The spread of Communism in Southeast Asia, in Malaysia and Thailand and Indosesia, was stopped by the best military operation ever... the British "Hearts and Minds" operation. What it did was send the British SAS into the villages across Southeast Asia with gifts of food, and equipment, and treats. And radios.
(5)Nazism
Yes, solved by war. But the Nazis started it.
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Now, let us look at number 6, terrorism.
Israel failed to defeat it with military force. Russia has failed to defeat it with military force. And America will fail to defeat it with military force.
Amigo,
I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't be satisfied with the freedom that the Magna Carta gave. Common people, peasants, were left out of the agreement.
"Now think of terrorism as the dark side of the force. Right now, most people in the Middle East are either scared of the Americans, angry at them, or terrorists. Remove the fear, and you end the cycle."
Something that you can't seem to see is that terrorism can have multiple causes. Maybe anger is a cause for terrorism. However, if you get rid of the anger, other causes remain. Mainly, a person's belief system, which can be a huge driving force depending on the amount of indoctrination they have received.
Islam is where most terrorists come from. That point is inarguable. Now, the Koran calls for the murder of infidels (when you see an infidel, smite at their neck until you make a great slaughter of them), and that point too is not debatable. Now, if one adheres to the Koran (or at least the Koran as it is taught by the Shi'ites an Wahabis, which are large violent sects of Islam), then their belief system that they have been taught will drive them to violence and terrorism. They aren't mad at anyone in particular; they just hate Jews and those who support Jews.
Now, they might get mad at us when we fight back, but they're going to attack us either way BECAUSE THEY HATE US. We can't appease them because they hate what we stand for. They hate the very thing (freedom) which makes us different from them, and so we have the choice to either conform to their worldview, or defend ourselves. Defense is my choice, and I think it would be your choice too.
A decade or so ago, you might remember Northern Ireland? The IRA? Ring any bells? The problems in Northern Ireland were caused by religon... Protestants vs. Catholics. However, the British did not bulldoze Catholic neighbourhoods or invade Ireland...and Northern Ireland is no longer in the news every few weeks.
The anger has dissipated, and the problem has faded. Compare Israel... the anger is still there. Israel has invaded its neighbours, not necessarily without justification, but perhaps not the right course of action, and bulldozed Palestinian homes... the result: suicide bombings.
Not because of the Koran. The Bible also says some fairly questionable things, and a true follower of the bible would probably be arrested for murder (stone the alduterer?)
You are right about the Magna Carta, of course.
And perhaps you misinterpret the Koran in a similar way?
About Ireland: I was there ten years ago during the cease-fire. I can tell you that the so-called "Catholics" and "Protestants" are NOT religious. "Catholics" are simply Communists, and "Protestants" are racial bigots.
While we were there, our car broke down along a coastal road. A religious Catholic family took us in for the afternoon, although they knew my father was a conservative Protestant minister. The religious people on both sides abhor the violence (which has restarted, by the way); it's just lots of thugs who love fighting and want an excuse. This is the attitude of the religious ones:
"Too long my soul has made its home
With those who peace abhor.
I am for peace, but when I speak
They ready are for war."
Psalm 120:6,7
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe the Koran has an old and new Testament...
RE: IRA
Oh goodness, I think you missed the point of my last post. The conflict in Northern Ireland was a result of cultural conflict, not specific commands and insults from one of the groups' holy books! Those groups were angry at each other, but that was their only motive for attacking. The Muslims attack the Jews relentlessly because they see it as their duty to their religion. Are they angry? Maybe, but that won't stop them from attacking Israel and the US because they believe that it is their duty to do so regardless of the presence or absence of feelings of animosity.
Similar to the Catholics and Protestants in NI or the Crusaders who used religon to promote war and terror, the Islamic terrorists use the Koran to promote terrorism.
Islam is no more responsible for the actions of AQ and JI than Catholicism is responsible for the IRA, or Baptism for the abortion clinic bombings.
The Koran may not have an old and new testament (though it intergrates large parts of the Old Testament), but it can be misinterpreted and misquoted in just the same way I can misquote the Bible at you:
"I make peace, and I create evil"
SEE! GOD IS EVIL!!!!!!!!!
Think about whether you could be misinterpreting the Koran in a similar way.
How do you know that? Did you hear it from a Muslim who can speak Arabic and has read the Koran? If not, I doubt the authenticity of your source.
Please name your sources(s).
And Christians have been slaughtering Christians for thousands of years. The war between the Turks and the Byzantines had little to do with religon and much to do with the Turk's desire for conquest.
Jacob Thrasher says:
Islam is where most terrorists come from. That point is inarguable. Now, the Koran calls for the murder of infidels (when you see an infidel, smite at their neck until you make a great slaughter of them), and that point too is not debatable. Now, if one adheres to the Koran (or at least the Koran as it is taught by the Shi'ites an Wahabis, which are large violent sects of Islam.
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Jacob clearly doesn't know what he's talking about. If he learned about world history, then he'd know that most of the Evils of the world were commited under the Banner of Christianity. As a matter of fact, Australia was stolen under the banner of Christianity. Think about the killings of Natives of the Americas, of Aborigines, of African slaves, of East Indians, of African citizens, of Middle Easterners. These acts of TERRORISM lasted for CENTURIES in most of the cases aforementioned. Christians, and in particular, a GREAT NUMBER of so-called 'Whites' are responsible for the MOST ACTS OF TERRORISM against humanity. A true student of history should know that. It always strikes me how those who have Logs in their eye can speak against the splinter in his neighbor's eye! Alas! Such is the hypocrisy of Mankind.
In the case of Jacob, at least his comments are indicative of his naive adolescence.
Islam is much (raised to infinity) better than either Christianity or Judaism can even dream of being! Islam has caused the least Evil against humanity. Those 'Islamic fundamentalist' that are so criticized are none other than freedom fighters. Who would like to have their home be taken, their family killed, their culture stepped on, simply on the basis of a Torah-based prophesy? Only those whose ancestors have raped, killed, pirated, stolen, lied, deceived, murdered, burned, lynched, etc, could justify the occupation of the Palestinians by the Khazar Jews.
When a group of South Africans formed an army of resistance to fight against the System of Apartheid, they too were labeled as terrorists.
Any fair, learned, unbiased, and (truly) educated person would know from the FACTS, not from opinions or biased sources, that the so-called 'terrorist' in Palestine are freedom fighters and that Islam isn't a religion of violence but of Peace.
There's no worse blind than he who refuses to see.
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