# How come the world's 6th most powerful army can't eradicate a terrorist group? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 7, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-worlds-6th-most-powerful-army-cant-eradicate-a-terrorist-group/621214 "2012-05-07T19:44:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![newcomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e5b9ba/32.png) [@newcomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcomer)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-worlds-6th-most-powerful-army-cant-eradicate-a-terrorist-group/621214/21 "2012-05-10T19:13:47Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > Sure you can, just ask the [Sri Lankans](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_Tigers). Of course they had a significant advantage - Sri Lanka’s an island so it’s relatively easy to stop the militants you’re after slipping over the border. The Sri Lankan army basically swept everyone (including civilians) in the area onto a small peninsula and then shelled them until the final militants surrendered. > > Whether this makes the Sri Lankan government worse than the Tigers is a matter of opinion. Personally I don’t think so (take a look at the Human rights violations part of the wikipedia page) but YMMV. There was an article in [The New Yorker](http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/17/110117fa_fact_anderson) about it. I always find it interesting how the narrative of Tamil Tigers and similar cases boils down to, they both did terrible things and one side (usually the one with more guns) came on top – end of story. What happened to Tamils in the event you describe is not much different from what happened in genocide-like destruction of Srebrenica and its inhabitants in the hands of Serb army. It still perplexes me how is it that these two events are totally differently understood in the “West”. ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-worlds-6th-most-powerful-army-cant-eradicate-a-terrorist-group/621214/22 "2012-05-10T20:22:04Z")
This is like asking “How come the world’s 6th most expensive hammer can’t nail Jell-O to the wall?” ---
**Author:** ![mac9891](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f4b2a3/32.png) [@mac9891](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac9891)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-worlds-6th-most-powerful-army-cant-eradicate-a-terrorist-group/621214/23 "2012-05-11T03:41:03Z")
Trying to weed out terrorist by killing, especially when done by invaders from another country, just breeds more terrorist to avenge there fallen friends family or comrades. It may keep the numbers down while activity hunting but is not a final solution. ---
**Author:** ![Vicullum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/6de8d8/32.png) [@Vicullum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vicullum)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-worlds-6th-most-powerful-army-cant-eradicate-a-terrorist-group/621214/24 "2012-05-11T04:58:38Z")
The British also managed to defeat [Boer guerrillas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War) after a long and bloody campaign. Their solution: sweep the country bare of everything that could give sustenance to the guerrillas, which meant rounding up all women and children into concentration camps and conducting a scorched-earth campaign to deny them any supplies. Theoretically, we _could_ use similar tactics to defeat the Taliban, but the enormous cost, both in human lives and political fallout, makes it untenable. Hence our current quagmire. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-worlds-6th-most-powerful-army-cant-eradicate-a-terrorist-group/621214.md?page=1)