Can a war on terror ever be won & if so how?

Question

Israel has been fighting a war on terror for over 40 years & counting (and they didn't even start calling it a war on terror until 9/11 happened). And they are the world's experts at fighting terrorists. So if Israel can't even "win" a war on terror how is the US going to win it, other than eliminating every Muslim on the planet?

Answer 1

Sounds like a plan to me...turn the Middle East, except for Israel, into glass, then you won't have to worry about Islamic terrorists again, EVER!

Answer 2

"Winning" such a war is a difficult matter. An example of one such "win" would be the aftermath of the Civil War. Clearly a substantial component of the South was unwilling to accept a Union victory and felt that emancipation was the wrong choice. They waged an intermittent terror war on the government which went through several stages. You can say that even this one isn't "won" yet. Indeed the impracticality of such a war's conduct is clear when you understand that every single resident must agree with the government and/or not resort to violence of any type prior to the war being "won".

Having said that, the cost of not fighting the war on terror is far higher than the cost of fighting it.

Answer 3

The first step I would take to rid the world of terrorism is to lock up people who advocate genocide on yahoo answers. I find you more terrifying than I do the terrorists.

Answer 4

Yes. Put a Mafioso like Tony Soprano in charge and give him cart blanc and unlimited resources to end the problem. In other words, don't fight a "sensitive" war as Kerry said he would do and Bush is in-fact doing. Fight it like Sherman did in the South. Better millions more of the war-starting enemy should die than Westerners until they get the point, Muhammed was wrong..they are not going to rule this planet for Allah...not now, not ever, in human history.

Answer 5

For one thing, no, a war on terror can never be "won". It is the most clever scheme to keep a war going on forever....think of the war on drugs....same concept. It's no difference between having a war on thoughts, or a war on mean people....it will never be won.

For every (so-called) "terrorist" we kill or jail, there are three more who become angered and resort to the same tactics to go against us....it will never stop.

and by the way Israel isnt fighting a war on terror any more than we are, we are all fighting against people who are sick and tired of us interfering in their affairs like we are Gods chosen lawgiver for the entire Earth...we arent....and people will never stop fighting against it (and they shouldnt).

The palestinians will NEVER stop killing israelis because the israelis will NEVER give them their land back and never stop killing THEM....its all a big never ending circle which should never have been started, but now that it is, will just keep on rolling.

And open thoughts, you are a fool. You cant just obliterate someones country, killing every single person whether they are innocent or guilty....what if that were your family? You'd feel differently regardless of what you may say on here.

What if China decided tomorrow that it need to rid the world of the scourge of the evil american govt (and it IS evil), and to do this they had to invade and drop bombs on our cities, and shoot all those who stood against them as "insurgents"....would you just let them get away with it (for whatever reason) or would you fight it...i think you know the answer.

besides, the (so-called) hijackers were almost ALL SAUDIS...not from afghanistan at all, so you'd in essence be murdering a whole nation of innocent people so you could kill maybe a handful of people you THINK are terrorists....besides that the Taliban and Al Queda are two totally different things...read up on it a little...oh wait you could care less, you just wanna blow people up.

--

So far I have only seen a couple of people who are competent enough to understand that the word "terrorist" is a very ambiguous and grey term....According to the definition of terrorist/terrorism, the American government are just as guilty as anyone.

-- Mike you're an idiot, and a dangerous one at that.

you'd kill millions of "enemies" (as you call them) otherwise known as completely innocent civilians, for what reason? oh wait, the enemy hides there so they are all guilty...well i guess the next time a guy kills some people and runs into your neighborhood we should burn your house down and kill your family too because you might be in league with him....lovely...good thing other countries dont have this view of america.....and if they did, they deserve to with people like you spouting your hatred of others....you should bea ashamed....let's hope you are never at the business end of the screwed up foreign policy of another country...my guess is your rhetoric would slow down a bit.

Answer 6

Two ways. Divide and conquer or Drug them and conquer. Never met force with force, that is dumb. If I fight you even if I win I will have a black eye or worse so why fight. I rather instigate and watch you fight someone else, when you are tired then I can beat you easy. Let instigate so the Shiites fight the Sunnys, the Hamas fight the Fatah and the Hebolaz on and on...They already hate one another so it won't be too hard. That is Divine and Conquer. BTW we used to do that by giving weapons to Iraq to fight Iran. Another way is to give them drug like the English use to give opium to the Chinese and easily conquered them or like we use to give the American Indian alcohol and take the fight out of them. It won't be to hard to give drug to those desperate people, and when they are addicted we can conquer them. In order to do that we need a smart President and George W. Bush is not the smartest so until 2008, let wish that we will make the right decision and vote for someone intelligent.

Answer 7

A war on terror is a very broad subject. There cannot be any way to win a war. There would always be people who will start it based on the existing reason topped with their own personal ones.

We could start by letting things go and apologize if it really is our fault.

Answer 8

By obliterating Iran and making them an example of what happens when you support terrorism.

Answer 9

there is no military solution. you can't blow up an ideology and you can't 'eliminate' innocent people because of a few bad seeds. what if the rest of the world said, hmmm i hate bush and anyone who supports him let's get every American! well, everyone here would be "eliminated" as you say because a minority 31% support Bush and his bonehead policies.

Answer 10

We do not have to eliminate all of them. We have to make them understand that if they mess with us, the results are devastating.

For example, we should have obliterated Afghanistan. It is tragic that some innocent people die, but the reality is that they should have overthrown a government which was supporting terrorism before their government caused them to be attacked.

Retalliation of "like kind" is the most absurd thing I have ever heard. If someone punches you in the eye, the best way to be sure that they do not do it again is to break their nose, their jaw, and a couple of limbs for good measures. They will NOT mess with you again. If they do, you knock them out, place their mouth on a curb and kick them in the back of the head.

This sounds harsh, but the reality is that "like kind" will never work. You have to punish someone for attacking you.

fort...if my family were in Afghanistan, I WOULD HAVE MOVED OUT...if not before 9/11...IMMEDIATELY AFTER, and we are talking about hours, not days. Unfortunately people like you do not understand that it is the ONLY way to win a war is to fight with GREATER FORCE...you will NEVER win with LIKE KIND!

trumph...if our govt. supported terrorists and attacked innocent civillians like the WTC of a powerful country...I WOULD GET THE HE!! OUT! Guaranteed, most countries of the world would attack with superior force...not "like kind"