How does killing terrorists "create more terrorists"?

Question

Killing terrorists only creates more terrorists? This is sophomoric nonsense. The surest way to swell the ranks of terror is to follow the approach we did in the decade before 9/11...and do nothing of substance. Al Qaeda and related terrorist groups metastasized because they were viewed in the Muslim world as handing the Great Satan America embarrassing defeats with impunity. There were no consequences.

Even the occupation of Iraq is a war of attrition. We’re doing remarkably well, given the restrictions under which our forces operate. But no grand maneuvers, no gestures of humanity, no offers of conciliation, and no compromises will persuade the terrorists to halt their efforts to disrupt the development of a democratic, rule-of-law Iraq. On the contrary, anything less than relentless pursuit, with both preemptive and retaliatory action, only encourages the terrorists and remaining Ba'athist gangsters.

This will be a long war, stretching beyond many of our lifetimes. And it will be a long war of attrition. We must ensure that the casualties are always disproportionately higher on the OTHER side.

Answer 1

this logic is rediculus. we shouldnt kill people that want to kill us because that in turn "may" make more people want to kill us..... talk about cyclical. If you dont kill the first person he will kill so if you kill them until they realize their fight is unwinnable they stop. But if we give in they win. Its not easy but to just ignore the problem is a great idea in their eyes obviously. This is a war of attrition that is the thing people cant realize. One gives in or one runs out of fighters. to deny that is lunacy

wabbit is right but the fact is that is exactly what we are trying to do. we have to break the cycle. we arent just going around killing terrorists like some think. we let the people elect their own govt and we are helping them to create a democracy "like" govt. We are teaching them the way to live in freedom. They have a beat wife mentality and have to be shown how to live where you are not controled by the person with the most weapons. you dont see the progress because that doesnt sell in MSM but it is there if you just listen to the men and women on the ground.

http://www.centcom.mil/sites/uscentcom1/Shared%20Documents/newsroom.aspx

Answer 2

No that's not our story at all. Our story is factual reality. What exactly is the "scandal"? The IRS was targeting groups, big surprise. Obama condemned it and is taking care of it the only way he can, by investigating it and removing the top leadership, no scandal there. Terrorist attack on Benghazi. Not Obama's fault. Nobody can prevent terrorist attacks if there is no intelligence to make you believe otherwise. And if you're going to start in on "talking points" and emails, just stop already. The white house released the email chain yesterday, and it was a total cluster. That's what happens when you have a bureaucracy as convoluted as our gov't try to make decisions as a whole. If the third "scandal" you are referring to is the AP mess, what exactly is the "scandal"? That there was sensitive information that could have compromised an investigation or operation, so the gov't stepped in to squash it? Let's get real already. If there's a true "scandal" then Obama will be impeached, but it's not going to happen. There's no scandal that is going to bring Obama down, no matter how many hours, days, months, and years the GOP waste on this witch hunt.

Answer 3

Some of it can be considered left wing commentary, but the point is that killing may not increase terrorism, but killing alone will not get rid of it for good. There's gotta be something other than hunting down terrorists in war on terror. We need to some how ease tension between west and Muslim culture. If killing/hunting terrorists is only answer to terrorism it is going to be real wack a mole game forever. Our big ally is moderate(non-extremist) Muslims/Arabs who condemn terrorism. They can help us by working to steer fellow Muslims away from extremist views. This is how we need to get rid of extremism/terrorism in combination with military actions. It will be prevention&extremination.

Iraq didn't go well actually. There were big mistakes early on. One was when they decided to disband existing Iraqi army after Saddam was ousted(Saddam's old army did agree to corporate, but this was ignored). They put thousands of trained/armed soldiers on street without jobs. Think they were happy with that? So called deBaathification worked to increase secretarian tensions and thought by many to be miscalculated move and highly criticized. We basically put armed angry soldiers/mobs on streets on Iraq with not enough ground force and increased secretarian tensions from the beginning. And what we see today shouldn't surprise anyone if they know some of these key mistakes made during early days when the US moved into Bagdad. Soliders may be doing well working overtime big time, but senior policy makers and strategists did horrible job planning how to make Iraq into peaceful democratic country. Not very fair when someone do terrible job and put more burden on others. That's what had happened to the US soldiers on the ground. They're paying for bad decisions made at DC.

Answer 4

Basically because of how a terrorist views their fight. It's not like fighting a military when they're fighting for their government and when the government tells them to stop, they just stop. These people have personal vendettas against the people they hate. And when an enemy of theirs kills them, the friends and family of the deceased take up the cause accusing the enemy and vowing for revenge. If there are 4 brothers in a family and one of them is a radical in a milita, the other 3 may just grudgingly and peacefully go along with what their brother is mad about. But when the brother gets killed they take it personally and the 3 of them take their one brother's place. It's human nature to want revenge, unfortunately. Hope that helps, unless you're just the kind of person who really doesn't want to know and just wants people to validate their racism and desire for revenge, but if you are you've stopped reading by now.

Answer 5

You should keep in mind that issues involved are political in nature. Use of force to sort out political issues give no durable solution. In Iraq over 12000 persons have been killed during last year. I think Bush administration has a very clear idea about the issues involved. Muslim countries are supporting Bush. Trust your leadership. They are the best judge.

Answer 6

No. There were a heck of a lot of them in the first place. What you say makes a lot of sense to me. The phrase "anything less than relentless pursuit... onlly encourages the terrorists..." is the absolute truth that possibly few want to hear.

Answer 7

You are fueled by fear. Let us think simple for a minute, if you kill someone say a Iraqi citizen, well that makes the friends and family mad and some may want revenge right? Human nature, maybe some of those relatives will go join a anti American organized group now for one person you killed now maybe three or more or maybe a small child will grow up to hate American.

Answer 8

This sounds remarkably like the Israeli stance on terrorism. They have launched preemptive and retaliatory strikes against Palestinians, and other Muslims, for decades. Do they seem to you to have reduced the incidence of terror?
You write like an intelligent individual, why do you not recognize that the "ranks of terror" have swollen immeasurably since our invasion of Iraq. I liken it to fighting hornets by shooting BB's into the nest.
While I too abhor terrorism, I don't think that we can or will defeat it militarily, any more than we will defeat drugs by imprisoning addicts

Answer 9

American foreign policy is using a broad sword when a scalpel should have been used. If we had gone after terrorists with the support of the UN and worked with governments rather than invading and threatening, we could have harmed far fewer innocent people and been viewed as defending ourselves. Instead we are bully pushing our own agenda, damn the rest of the world.

Answer 10

It does not. It is a symptom of the victim thinking that liberals hold. They believe that we anger people by doing what we do. We still have a terrorism problem because we do not drop the hammer on terrorists when they act up.