Simple,
rid the world of opression, then see if anyone still thinks terrorism is necessary.
Or perhaps greck - to rid the world of inequity is a more accurate target.
jjimm - your post earlier was a truly excellent one - and it contained thought processes which sadly are often overlooked in the blind persuit of “fix it right now” solutions. I know it sounds dreadfully callous, but in my opinion, terrorism is only occasionally a totally “philosophical” movement. Certainly, the Baader-Meinhoff gang, and The Red Brigades, and al-Quaida fit that bill - but by and large they tend to be the exceptions to the rule I rather think.
In the great majority of cases, terrorism is usually a symptom of some greater, underlying form of injustice. And it seems to me that a lot of the regions in this world where terrorism is manifesting itself has a sense of injustice which can usually be identified if you make the effort to do a bit of research.
Now, those injustices can take many forms - for example, a corrupt central government, or a corrupt police force, or a system which openly allows the rich to get richer while the poor get poorer, or a state where local cultural sensibilities are smothered as the lands are taken over by forced ethnic immigration - all of these situations are one’s which, if you think about it - can be applied time and time again to the most famous terrorist causes of the last century.
Sadly, the world is more populated than ever before - and natural resources are getting thinner and thinner as a result. Statistically it’s inevitable that more and more shit fights between cultures is going to happen unfortunately.
But I will say this - there are 5 Golden Ideals which the world’s most stable Western Democracies all hold dear - and if those 5 Ideals were propagated throughout the rest of the world it would go a long way towards removing a lot of the inequity in this world.
The problem is that a lot of nation states which DON’T uphold those 5 ideals are hell bent on retaining their power base.
Umm… They may be the exception, but their victims are still every bit as dead as the victims of any terrorist group you may wish to label “mainstream”.
What grinds my gears as a conservative / hawk is that the left / dove brigade keep saying “but a hard-edged military response only breeds more discontent amongst disaffected youth, and created the terrorists of tomorrow”.
Do you think we don’t know that?
I would be the first to agree that that is the single biggest disadvantage to a tough response. But I am still waiting for a viable alternative from the doves (shit, I don’t like war either, give a workable solution with no bloodshed, and I’d support it in a second). We are not dealing with normal, rational human beings here. You can’t appease a person who is demanding the entire population of the United States converts to Islam forthwith. Not going to happen. Bubba from Tennessee with his pick-up is going to change his name to Jamal? No.
So, we fight or we don’t.
If we don’t, the terrorists, not having gotten what they want, will continue their attacks forever. Those attacks will get bigger and bigger. Probably nuclear one of these days. Bye-bye St Louis. Or Sydney. Or Glasgow. Or Auckland. (It might not be an obvious NYC type target).
I’m not doe-eyed and positive about a hawkish approach. Of course, it is at great cost (we are seeing that in Iraq now). But we have no choice. It is up to individuals how long they wait until they finally face that truth.
Terrorism has been around forever and will continue to be around forever.
Removing this recent high media focus on terrorism will reduce the effect of terrorism (that is to create terror). The only way to do that is to distract the world media with something else.
If terrorism is fire - the media is the oxygen.
TLD you are over-reacting and have bought the hype.
Stop funding Israel. Dissolve the Israeli government and bring up the responsible parties within it on charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Hold free and fair elections. Tell the new government to keep things on the up-and-up. Confiscate all Israeli Weapons of Mass Destruction, and maintain an inspection program to insure that they don’t make more. Create a fully independent Palestine. Hold Israel financially responsible for the rebuilding of said Palestine. Remaining terrorists from either side shall be executed, following a fair trial. Said fair trials shall be modeled after US law, pre-Bush.
Kill everyone on the planet.
If that is too severe, I recommend a healthy dose of Mind Your Own Business, at least as far as the middle east is concerned. If we leave the place alone it’ll be much harder for anyone from there to be angry at us, right? This will have to be a long term strategy, like over the next 50 years or so.
No. Bzzt. I just hold a different opinion to yours. But thanks for playing.
Terrorists can only be defeated by policing, gather evidence arrest suspects and try them publicly so all can see justice done.
Defend what targets you can whilst this is going on.
Try to open some sort of dialogue with leaders to find out what their problem is.
There is no glory in this, it is not quick, more people will die until whatever problems are resolved.
sajwalke: My god, you’re right! If we had just minded our own business during World War II and left Europe alone, we never would have lost 400,000 soldiers!
In a lot of ways, “minding their own business” is the reason why nations and regimes are the target of terrorist attacks today. Colonial greed; economic gain to be made by cartels and lobby groups by the increased influence of one nation over the affairs of another to ease access to resources, land etc; playing a geo-political game of chess with the “Third World” as the board, moving pieces around to limit a rival’s sphere of influence …
While there are strong national self-interest in this world, there will always be the breeding ground for fanatics and those who follow them toward the promise of a simpler future. World history would have to be rolled right back, a state of extreme international enlightenment achieved, before the bombs stop going off and innocent lives snuffed out like the candle.
Some extreme statements as has been expressed here in this thread, mind, are exactly what the fanatics are counting on to relate to their listeners.
“See? They do want to destroy us all …!”
All very, very, sad.
None of you are (IMHO) getting to the real point.
There’s only one way to minimize terrorism and that’s development. Give the people something to lose and their interest in destroying the existing social fabric will lessen.
Sure, there will always be a set amount of terrorists. But if they cease to get ‘buy-in’ from the surrounding population there effectiveness will be diminished.
You want to know what makes buildings blow up?
FUNDING makes buildings blow up?
No Bucks, No Buck Rogers. (or something like that)
Do you think AK-47s grow on trees? Or the ammor or replacement parts? Do you think Fundies shit explosives?
Go after the money. Close up the factories and routes that send amrs into third world countries. Sure there are plenty of weapons there now but let’s face it. They have had enough.
Stop the funding, stop the fundie terrorists.
Or really slow them down.
And where do you imagine they get the money from?
Do you think they grow it on trees in their back garden?
People give it to them.
People in your country, people in my country.
Individual Joe Schmoes who think the boys in the old country are getting a raw deal. Either because they personally remember it, having seen it first hand or because they have heard the stories of deprivation coming down through the family, gathering momentum with each generation.
How are you going to stop that?
I don’t really have specifics for you. I’m not a finacial genius or anything but I do know that stuff has to be paid for. And it costs money to buy guns and bombs and to build training camps and to ship guys to the training camps and then to ship them to another country and set them up in apartments and such.
I think many people may give to a ‘charitable group’ to ‘help’ people in the home country and not realize that it goes to fund terror. Some people, I’m sure, know full well that their money goes to buy guns. But charities are supposed to keep books. The evidence is somewhere, and I’ll bet it easier to go through ‘the books’ then it is to go through every cave in Afganistan.