Support for terrorism and sympathy for terrorism are gigantic problems for the US. What effective ways to fight it does the US actually have that it can do?
When the Tsunami hit the US’s support did alot to cut down on moral support for Bin Ladin. I will try to dig up the study but it showed a dropping from 57 to 23% fgor terrorism after we gave millions to help people. What else can we do?
Stop messing with other countries at taxpayers expense for one.
Yeah, I know, but alot of the ‘interventions’ blamed on the US are either conspiracy theories or occured 50-80 years ago (ie the breakup of the ottoman empire and the creation of Israel). But there has to be something constructive we can do.
That’s the kind of attitude that gets things blown up. It is much harder to do nothing than to do something, but that’s exactly what we must do. Terrorism should be downplayed in the media as a boring statistic, no memorials, no vigils, no missions, no propaganda, no organizations, no terror alert, no task forces, no departments. Then, and only then, will it be eradicated.
What, do you think, the goal is of somebody who kills themselves and others in a major terrorist act? Do you think anybody honestly expects the US to change it’s policies in their favor after blowing something up? Of course not. The expectation is that the government and the people will get just a little more scared, will spend more time on defenses, news reports and terror alert levels.
I feel the best reaction to 9/11 that US could’ve had would be to stop checking IDs at airports and remove metal detectors since that just wastes resources and obviously doesn’t prevent major terrorist acts. That’s would’ve been a real sign of strength. Instead of a stupid memorial we should’ve just rebuilt WTC where it stood as quickly as possible. That would’ve been a real sign of perseverence.
Why do you think muslim terrorism is such a big problem around the world? Because it works even better than anybody could’ve dreamt. There’s fear, hatred, action - everybody is trying to do something about it. That is precisely the kind of chaos that political and religious leaders use to further their careers and increase their power, be they John Kerry, George W. Bush or Osama Bin Laden.
The only way to stop terrorism is not to react, to continue to be happy and live your life the way you lived it before. If terrorism has no effect, there’s no longer a point to do it.
Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq.
“Ignore it and it will go away”.
Clinton tried this. It didn’t work.
Actually, it was Bush who unsuccessfully tried it. Clinton was quite alert to the threat Al-Qaeda represented.
How about change in foreign policy towards Israel to something a little more equitable in the eyes of the Middle East/Palestinians?
Withdraw US troops from the ‘Holy Lands’?
Just thoughts…
If we accommodate the agenda of Islamic fundamentalism, we just might achieve peace in our time.
It would have to be an effort on everybody’s behalf. The news stations would have to not refer to such events as “tragedies”, politicians not to make any laws or resolutions and not to address the issue, etc.
Great post, mks57. Classic.
The Arabs are about as ‘unbiased’ on the palestinian issue as OJ was in the Robert Blake case, so them asking for equity and fairness when they want Israel destroyed and its civilians bombed while the US gives millions in humantarian aid to palestinians is not something I’d support. “Equitable” probably means ‘the same blind support for palestine we have’ in the eyes of most muslims when you actually break it down, as that is what happens in alot of Arab countries. Placating them this was probably isn’t a good idea, even if it leads to terrorism.
Most of these ideas are obviously silly and equate to leaving all your doors open to scare thieves into thinking your house is so secure you don’t need locks.
Some things make sense. Metal detectors and other security measures make sense. The constant onslaught of 9/11 programming does not make sense, but it is news and it is not realistic to expect people not to talk about it.
Non of these ideas, however, actually address the root causes of terrorism - that there are evil, dilusional people who want to see Islam increase in power and influence. They have a large supply of followers from the poor and oppressed as well as the naive and idealistic middle class of their societies.
Y’know, there’s a pretty wide gap between “seeing the Israel/Palestine conflict impartially” and “accomodating the agenda of Islamic fundamentalism.”
Thieves have something to gain by gaining entry to your house explicitly. Terrorism happens because of political and religious goals. They want to instill fear, chaos, to be recognized, famous, aknowledged. They want to gain power and momentum, they want retaliation so they can further their agenda, whatever. They most likely do not want to just kill a bunch of random people for the sake of killing a bunch of random people. If all a terrorist act accomplishes is kills a bunch of random people with no aftereffects whatsoever
No, not they do not. It just filters out a few idiots who did not think through what they are doing well enough. Logically, effective security measures are not feasible without a major disruption for everybody or a bunch of secret methods. A waste of time, IMO.
I don’t know, I suppose. However, it’s also possible for an entire nation to close it’s eyes on much bigger things, so it should be possible not to talk about a few deaths here and there. These things simply do not matter to 99% of lives and it’s just morbid curiosity, this shock and patriotic misery is akin to slowing down and looking at an accident.
The root causes of terrorism are that some people get pissed off about their surroundings (fairly on unfairly) to the point to collectively blame somebody else (fairly or unfairly) under the leadership of sane or insane individual or a group of individuals who then decide to use terrorist acts to further their agenda. Islam does not necessarily have anything to do with terrorism other than religious fundamentalism combined with personal discomfort is a perfect breeding ground for terrorism. Bin Laden’s supporters are not neccessarily evil or delusional, at least not more so than ourselves.
In fact, Bin Laden’s supporters are promoting guerrilla military action against what they see as a military and cultural invasion. Not an ethically wrong position. Just because we’re on this side and they are on that is a historical crapshoot. There’s nothing fundamentally different between the people themselves and I can easily see the situation reversed with us strapping dynamite to extremist baptists trying to blow up Petra or whatever. (By us I’m of course referring to some extremist subset of wester population, not you or me in particular)
If the US were to move closer to the EU position on the Arab-Israeli conflict, it would be a dramatic shift in US policy. Surely you’re not saying that the EU has caved to Arab pressure and advocates the destruction of Israel?
I don’t think it would matter. Anti-americanism is deeply entrenched in the muslim world and I don’t think a different Israel/palestine agenda will undo decades of calling the US the ‘great satan’.
While I agree that muslim terrorists are fighting a cultural invasion and that we would do the same thing if it happened to us (Imagine if in the US that China was the world’s strongest power and had been for 200 years, and that we gave up our western ideals and started adopting Chinese foods, chinese clothes, chinese media and entertainment, Chinese religions, Chinese forms of government, Chinese attitudes towards women, minorities, human rights, etc. and that the Chinese military set up a stronghold in California and could easily kick our militaries ass. Sooner or later there’d be a resurgence of radical pro-americanism backed up with violence to kick the intruders out) they really are evil people. Bin Ladin supported the govs of Saudi Arabia (before he was kicked out), Sudan and Afghanistan, all of which are deeply evil governments. He also wants to return to an age of no human rights, civil rights, political rights, womens rights, minority rights, etc. where people are tortured and murdered for minor infractions.
Out of curiousity, how long do you think that the US has been vilified in the Arab world, and what do you believe caused it?
I remind you that during the Suez Canal crisis, the US was the hero to many Arab people. Many older, moderate Arabs still bring up Suez in hopes that there can be reconciliation between the US and Arabs.
Extending beyond the Arab world, the country that has perhaps the most disturbing anti-American protests, Iran, has a youth that has overwhelmingly turned their back on the radicalism of the 1980s and actually embrace the US in roughly the same way that Soviet youth in the '80s coveted American culture.
If you write off all the people of the Middle East as simply violent anti-American extremists, there will never be any hope of promoting pro-Americanism.
Giving up the torture might help.
–Cliffy