What do we hope to achieve in the war on terror?

Question

And how can we achieve it? Clearly we can't go from country to country wiping out all governments that house terrorists, can we? And don't just say "A safer world" or "Kill all the terrorists", I'm talking about more specific goals.

Well it's a war on an ideology and they recruit more people all the time. There has to be more to it besides trying to kill known terrorists.

Answer 1

Victory by force is inevitable. The middle east has been victim to western conflict since Alexander the great. Jihad is wrong but so is the devil's advocate claiming to build democracy and protect the world from radical Islam at the cost of human lives.

Nation building and bombs only stirs the pot of hatred towards us and until we restore our reputation, poor diplomacy will plague our great nation with war. We need to find smarter ways to combat terrorism. Bombs provoke more unwanted hatred, when adversity protects us. They're are so many geniuses in this nation with the skills to protect us from our homeland. Too many of America's finest have died in a war that is only infuriating Jihadist. They want us out and we'd feel the same if they occupied us.

Diplomacy and intelligence will save us, but those skills are squandered by poor leadership over brave soldiers.

Answer 2

First off, there is no war on terror. Get that straight. There is a war to build an Iraqi government that will allow our oil cartels to siphon off a percentage of Iraqi oil. The Sunni's and the Shia and the Kurds want shares of the oil too. That's what the fighting is about plus all Iraqi's, other than our paid politicos, want us and other "terrorists" out of their country.

As for 'terrorists" who are they? Do you know? Why are they Terrorists? Because they fight us in Iraq? Wouldn't you fight an invader of our country?
Oh... you mean the bombing of the Twin Towers, 9/11? Who was supposedly responsible for that? Ben Laden? Is he the big chief "terrorist?" If so, forgetting the oil for a moment, why are we fighting in Iraq if the big chief "terrorist" is in Pakistan/Afghanistan or maybe Maimi or Las Vegas or Saudi Arabia perhaps? (He is a Saudi you know.) And why the heck, when we attacked Afghanistan and supposedly were about to capture big chief "terrorist" Ben Laden, we made a 90 degree turn and went into Iraq instead?

Why would we let the big chief "Terrorist" go if we're "fighting terrorism?"

Oh, BTW, you did know that the Ben Laden family has been doing business with the Bush family for quite a while - didn't you? And you do know that after 9/11 when ALL air travel in the USA was suspended, the White House rounded up many wealthy Saudi's, including members of the Ben Laden family, put them on a plane and sent them back all comfy cozy to Saudi Arabia. Your tax dollars at work folks. Well don't just watch FOX news and believe, check things out for yourself once in a while. It's the Patriotic thing to do.

One more reality check:

Politicians have used "Fear" to control people for ages and that's what they're doing now. They create a fear and an answer to it and the weak and ignorant will give them whatever they want. Money, war, rights, power - anything as long as they keep the big chief faceless, nameless, meaningless, boogyman away.

Back in the 1930's and 40's, when this nation had honor and courage at the same time, the people were facing far, far, tougher conditions (The Great Depression, WWII) than we will likely ever know. But they didn't panic, partly because of their character and partly becaise of our President of the time, Frankin D. Roosevelt, who gave the people a simple but powerful mantra to help them through. "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." (Try saying that to yourself a few times a day.)

Today, when we all have cell phones, SUV's and frappacinno's the mantra is, "Be afraid. You are in constant danger."

And you are, aren't you?

Answer 3

The naive answer is that we will keep fighting and invading nations to obliterate terrorism forever. If we really think about terrorism then all of America should remember the Oklahoma bombing was born out of home grown terrorism and we should start seeing how the rest of the world views our counter-terrorism measures with outright hatred... creating more terrorism. Terrorism has existed in the world long before America was even founded. People should learn about history and see that this problem can not be beaten by obstinate endurance... it is like believing that we can win a war of attrition against mosquitos. The reality is that we will eventually have to make compromises... just like the UK compromised with the Sinn Fein and the IRA... or like the Israelis have taken steps to compromise with the PLO and Hezbollah. This is reality.

Answer 4

the war on terror will always be an ongoing thing, its like the 'permanent state of war'. i think mostly people want security. its not so much about killing the killers or whatever, but the war on terror is just a manifestation of people's want for a sense of stability. they want to know that tomorrow there wont be a bomb in the car next to them, and they can go about their socio-economic activities. that's what we want at the end of the day. which is why people are no longer supporting the troops in iraq because instabilty still rages on.

Answer 5

I don't know what you mean when you say we cannot go from country to country wiping out governments that shelter terrorists. We have not invaded Iran or Syria yet, have we? The Islamic terrorists will be around for a long time and will continue to attack us where they can. I would much rather fight them in their countries rather than recall all our troops and fight them here in the streets of New York City, LosAngeles, or other American cities.

Answer 6

Depends on what we you're talking about. The "we" that's in power right now wants control of the oil reserves. They're smart enough to know that the war they're fighting is useless and even counterproductive in fighting terror. The thing that would help most is to withdraw all our soldiers not only from Iraq but from all the bases in the middle east. Instead, we're building a whole bunch (14-17) in Iraq and plan to maintain our presence forever.

In fact, I would say the war on terror will be equally as effective as have the wars on poverty and drugs. Millions of tax dollars will be spent with only negative results.

Answer 7

By Further "restructuring" the middle east and claiming more oil. We can't win the war on terror, that would be a pretty close definition to "peace on earth and good will towards men" I don't see the violence or rise of extreme-ism, evil or deceit anytime soon. Unless evil itself is eradicated from planet earth, we will never win the war on terror. Period.

I seriously think we should withdraw all of our troops from every country--including Iraq, people are really getting ticked with the United States and it's "policing of the world". Besides, we need our troops here, back home, in case a future disastor happens.

Answer 8

It depends on who you mean by "we."

I am not interested in a war on a tactic. The International Corporate Fascists are utilizing their unending war as a rationalization to eliminate one of their biggest obstacles in the way of world domination: the Constitution of the United States of America.

Answer 9

It is an age old political tactic. Hitler used it as the war of the Jews, Stalin as the war against the capitalist imperialists, the mid evil catholic Church had it's war on of all things witches. You pose and enemy in order to keep yourself in power. It is a fundamental practice of the Republican party to campaign on fear. their new slogan for 2009 is a war on socialism. true it is a little desperate but that is the only thing they have left. Spending two hundred million dollars a minute on Iraq it is difficult to campaign based on a war on government pending.

Answer 10

Unfortunately the best we can do is to keep killing them. They are like Medusa, with many heads of snakes and we need to keep killing and killing them until they stay the hell out of our world.