Does anyone out there sincerely believe that the war on terrorism is going to be won militarily?

Question

Is that how we won the Cold War?

We had to keep our powder dry in case we had to go to war militarily, but we fully realized that the war against Communism had to be 99.9999% ideological.

And we won the Cold War sooner than our most optimistic dreams could ever anticipate.

With this undisputed victory in mind, why aren't we fashioning our war against Islamic fundamentalism primarily along the same ideological lines?

Answer 1

No one sane can believe that anyone can win a war of ideas with physical weapons. hat's crazy.

Nor can we build a government in Iraq among people who are incapable of realism, self-responsibility or scientific definition. The so-called country consists of three pseudo-religionist groups of tribalists who cannot possibly get along with one another, set aside their differences not function as anything except the enforced slaves of a dictator leader.
Our war is with the pseudo-religious mass murdering fanatics who are claiming they're protecting Islam's victims against the West and its superior ideas, productions, values and practices. That is the only thing stopping Western nations from getting useful change in the constitutions and the minds of Near Easterners. That is what we need to fight. And look at what is happening in Turkey now because we cannot do what we are supposed to do.
The West has poured billions into the hand of tyrant shiekh-kings for most of a century--and look at the sort of government the exploding populations of hopeless minds in the region have after all that.
The solution here is diplomatic I suggest; and part of it begins with getting us out of Iraq and getting diplomats to do their work instead--and insisting that only reality-based secular government can ever work.

Answer 2

The U.S. did win the cold war militarily. The U.S. proved in the first Gulf War, it had made every conventional Soviet Union weapon obsolete and bankrupted the Soviets in the arms race. There are still Communists and South American is getting more liberal with their economy, not more capitalistic.

Also the Soviet Union didn't start attacking capitalistic countrys because they were capitalists. Terrorists have no trouble attacking people to force countries to bow to their whim. They also don't bother to play by any western rules on warfare. They just kill any which way they can till they are stopped.

Answer 3

No one other than criticizing Democrats have ever said it would be won just militarily. Force or threat has been used to win every war including the Cold War.
It takes discussion, compromise, pleading, threatening & force if needed. Russia was smart enough to recognize the threat but terrorist have no fear or respect of anyone that is Christian. Their words not mine. It is not only foolish but dangerous to compare a nation like Russia to relionist zealots turned suicide bombers.

Were you planning to just bury the bodies after each 9/11, USS Cole, & attempted attack at Ft Dix? They have said they hate us & will exterminate us - they are not looking for a winthdrawal or even a surrender. We can try to stop them with all our resources or prepare our grave sites.

Your comparisons do not compare - study Hitler & see if ignoring would have worked. It did not when we tried to stay out & ignored what was happening. Hundreds of thousands died while we fixed our delay.

Answer 4

The Cold War contributed to the U.S. accumulation of 26,500 nuclear warheads. How is that not militaristic? It was a war along ideological lines underscored by military might and substance. This current conflict with terrorists and extremists is of the same vein.

Answer 5

Terrorism takes many forms. There was the terrorism against the Native Americans by European invaders which resulted in their death from violence, starvation and disease.
There was the terrorism against Modern Americans by the Islamists on 9/11.
But often terrorists attain their aims.
The mujahaddin fighting the Russians in Afghanistan in the 1980s were supported by the Americans and Osama bin Laden was their most useful organiser of fighters. They achieved their aim of removing the Russians from Afghanistan but then the Americans abandoned the mujahaddin and all these men trained in the art of terrorism and guerrilla warfare were unleashed on the world.
The IRA who were also supported by Americans for many years during which they murdered many British civilians.Policemen and soldiers are now included in the government of Northern Ireland.
The best known terrorist success is the State of Israel which was founded in 1948 after a long campaign of terrorism by illegal Jewish immigrants against the native population of Christian and Muslim Arabs and the British Administration.
In the end the British gave up and the UN gave the Jews some Palestinian land even though the Jewish terrorists had killed the Un representative , Count Bernadotte.
This campaign has become a blueprint for subsequent terrorists.

Answer 6

problem is that to win it militarily you have to be really a savage, just like the Roman did for example.

we would have to nuke several cities there...., thus spread terror in the region and extreme fear of the USA by the kill millions with our nukes...., thus killing families and relatives of the terrorist by the millions, and if not many of them themselves, and basically showing them that their culture would be extinguished and exterminated forever if they did not stop fighting us, ...but this is something the US will never do because we have become puss...es! last time we did something like that was at the end of WW2 with japan.

so realistically the way this is going to be won (maybe) is a combination of military and political efforts, but a military victory (as we are fighting right now) is impossible, the only way it could be achieved is if we had the ball to be as violent as I described above and to do that you have to be extremely violent to win it in a pure military way....by scaring the crap out of them!

Answer 7

It will never be won, it has been here and will always be here. You will never put it out completely.
Anyone who says it can be won is nothing but a stupid person who is blind to see the truth.
Like immigration, you can never stop it. they Will always keep coming one way or another.
Also like a bad neighbor or friend, always going to have one no matter what.

Someone some where will be committing an act of terrorism. Just cause we cant see it or hear about it doesn't mean its not happening or gonna happen.

This one war that will never be won
(something like getting bush to admit he made a mistake, if he does some how amazingly admit then still terrorism will never be won).

Answer 8

I'd argue that the cold war is very different to the war on terrorism. The cold war was started over how the spoils of World War Two would be split up between the Allied Nations and Russia. Politicians and propaganda later focused on the major difference between Russia and the Allies and that was Capitalism vs Communism. This became known as "Reds under the bed". The cold war while there was no actual declaration of war had two clear major opposing nations. America and Russia.

Russia was defeated by America because they run out of money first. Capitalism did not defeat Communism though. Firstly there are still Communist based nations and realistically most contemporary governments are a balanced combination of Communist and Capitalist ideals anyway eg. free markets vs social wealth fare and public utilities.

The "War on Terror" on the other hand is a war against a type of military tactic (terrorism) and not against a type of government, religion or on any particular nation. Now you can argue that it's against nations that support terrorist organizations - but at one stage in history or another that is any nation - the French Resistance Movement used terrorism and sabotage tactics against the Germans during WWII and the Irish used terrorism against the British occupation until recently to site just two examples. During conflicts with the Soviets in the middle east we even supported what are now terrorist organizations by supplying them with equipment and training to help them defend against the Soviets. Again it is too vague a concept to fight and is impossible to determine who is good and who is bad based on support of a type of tactic.

You can't win a war against an abstraction. You can however declare war on a nation, on a political organization, on a religion or on a particular race. But that isn't what has happened.

The war on terror will not be won until a real enemy is acknowledged and an official (and legal) declaration of war has been made. The naming of the so called Axis of Evil is the closest we've come to anything like that.

You can't even fight a war let alone win one against an enemy you can't identify.

Answer 9

I'm pretty sure that the terrorists attacked us on 9/11.

If anybody ever attacks the U.S., I'll be damned if we don't fight back.

Did the Russians ever attack us? No, but if they would've, we sure as hell would've fired back.

On top of that, I think calling Osama and the rest of those damned terrorists up to the U.N. would be a great idea. I'm pretty sure they'd stop hiding then. I mean, after all, we haven't found the main leaders for going on six years...

Answer 10

We won the cold war because the Communist government was unstable... not entirely because of diplomacy... I mean if we did play a role we supported the Russian rebels...?( which is sort of military like=))

The only way to win the war on terroism is a combined effort... split the terrorists apart so they attack each other while allying ourselves with some. Then slowly kill them off.. Like Ceasar with the Gauls!