Talk about grossly UNDER Estimating you enemies.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...96L0RM20130722
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Talk about grossly UNDER Estimating you enemies.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...96L0RM20130722
Frankly, I think we do a lousy job at police actions. We go, we kill, we get killed and we leave. Then everything reverts back to the way it has been for centuries. One more reason I was opposed to invading Iraq.
This is an entirely different kind of warfare, unlike anything we've ever experienced, and yet we can't seem to adapt and get a hold of it.
Think of it as cancer metastasis where you are not dealing with a malignant lump or two you can just excise and be done with. This cancer has spread throughout the body and mutates all the time, becoming resistant to meds that have previously worked.
You've got to fight it on all fronts, throw everything at it at your disposal and only pull back when advanced diagnostics show there's No Evidence of Disease. But you can never ever let your guard down, you can never quit being vigilant.
I am not surprised by this. B 100% agree, unless you eradicate the infection completely, it comes back and is usually worst.
I guess I'll have to disagree. Throwing everything at it including my privacy is not what I need. I don't pretend to be well versed in military tactics but it sure seems to me that when you radicalize a person from the moment they are a small child all the way to adulthood throwing everything you have at it is not the way to Git-R-Done. It only proves to them what they've been told all their life. Surgically removing the head of the snake every time it sprouts would be much more effective, less expensive in terms of people and finance and a more humane way to accomplish it.
That does mean rounding up those folks that have overstayed their visa here at home. That does mean drone and cruise missile attacks where ever we find them training and living. That does mean using a smidgen of common sense now and then.
At first, no doubt. But as time passes, we've been doing the all out method for 30 years, fewer and fewer will be willing to assume the roll of snake head when they see all of them snuffed out. Eventually, you have no one to lead, no one to continue teaching radical Islam and no one to wanting to keeping looking over their shoulder for the next air strike.
You don't need a snake head any more once the metastasis has occurred. Surgery of the largest lumps alone, doesn't take care of hundreds of cancerous lesions throughout the body, each one being able to invade and damage healthy tissue around it. You need adjuvant therapy--radiation, chemo, cyber knife, lifestyle change, immunity boosters, nutrition, faith, etc., as well as advanced diagnostics to be able to anticipate the MO of the disease and fight it on all fronts.
In other words, once you eliminate the big guys, your job isn't done. Gotta use intelligence, diplomacy, policy change (stay the heck out of where you don't belong), support of allies and local enforcement of immigration laws, among other things. And by throwing everything we got against this disease I don't mean giving up our freedoms; (damaging healthy tissue) that'll hurt more than help.
My suggestion of turning these countries into bombing practice ranges or glass parking lots gets rejected over and over and over again.
The road we've been traveling has worked so well. We spent trillions in Iraq and now it is back to square one. Same will be true in Afghanistan. If you continue to do what you've always done then you should expect to receive the same results you've always received. Think about it.
Radicalization occurs all over the world including on our own soil. Who else you gonna target after you annihilate the 3-4 usual suspect countries? You think the rest of the world is just gonna sit back and enjoy the show? You think the rest of the Muslim countries (we don't have a major beef with...yet) are not gonna have something to say about it?
THINK what got us into this mess to begin with, and start there.
I would expect a lot of "Boston Marathon Bombing" type stuff. You have 500 scumbags convicted & sentenced to death, and now they are free. I expect they will not be applying for normal type work. You have 500 hardcore fight to the death badasses looking for some get'even Jihad. I would also expect our Dept. of Homeland Security.......to use this to further their cause.
Dave - I don't disagree with you but the horse is out of the barn now. We should have done that in '83 when they hit Beirut.
SD - You can rest assured the DHS will in any way they can. That's the scary part to me. My odds of getting clipped by a terrorist is worse than winning the lottery. My odds of getting monitored by DHS are guaranteed.