Can the western alliance win the war against terror?

ekonomix

People are not born terrorists; they become terrorists, and I am quite sure it's not an easy process.

In order for someone to become a terrorist, there must have been some conditions that have pushed the individual to consider terrorism as his/her best recourse. I'm thinking along the lines of perceived and constant unfairness on a large scale, oppression, discrimination...

The longer there is a war, the more people will feel oppressed, the more terrorists or supporters of terror groups there will be.

What needs to be done is removing the push factors. The pull factors alone - say some people using religion to create problems - will not be enough. So the differential treatment afforded to different countries, of people has to stop.

Terrorism will be something we will have to live with for a large part of our lives. If the push factors are reduced, less people will join terror groups, less people will provide tacit support, and these groups will die a natural death.

coco

The terrorists are Islamic wackos that WANT to kill "infidels". They teach that all "infidels" are bad and deserve to die. Some of these answers on here about "it has to be negotiated" need to pull their head out of their ***.

armyboy1969

Okidoki is correct, but you have to keep something in the back of your mind. All Muslims are not bad! Many of the pillars of Islam mirror The Christian Ten Commandments, and even the the teachings of the Tora in Judeism.

The extremists we have to deal with have always existed in history, look at the Crusades!

There have been many good points made here, but I also believe that there is no way to negotiate. We must create an atmosphere of coexistance where these extremists can not thrive, and continue to preach hate.

One of the main problems with this war on terror is the media. Look what happened the other day in the Conflict between Isreal and Hezbollah. A photographer who supposedly had good credentials "Doctored" pictures to spin against the Isreali cause. After further research other pictures from this photographer from the past years were als provine "doctored"! Spin and propaganda is a major piece of this war. In the Army we call it Psy Ops, creating a beleif within the people you are dealing with. Unfortunately the Extremeists to this point are winning this war, with such outlets as al-Jezzera(? spelling).

Anyway, back on point though, this War on Terror is winnable when the situation is set to win it but we must not get distracted nor forget what or who we are dealing with. In someways we handcuff ourselves with our Liberty, but what is peace worth? A few liberties? Or keeping our freedom but forever be challenged with fring extremists creating Terror disrupting our lives?

mike_one_zero

We have to keep fighting terrorism. If we sit back they will just keep attacking our country anyway. At least now it makes it a lot harder for them to do so and we have forward deployed assets that have stopped numerous terrorist plots through information gathering and cell disruption.

The way to stop terrorism is to stop the flow of money to them, which means finding another source of energy besides oil. Iran is the biggest supporter of several terrorist groups which have killed many Westerners over the years, even before 9/11. They get 80% of their GNP from oil sales. Quit buying it and they'll be to damn broke to support terrorist groups, and this is true for most of the Middle East in general. That might not completely wipe out terrorism, but they won't be able to operate near the degree they do now.

James M

Hell yes we can beat terrorism, but a majority of the people in this world would never let it happen, due to the extreme nature in which this could be accomplished, so i would have to say it will happen someday.

omapat

Terrorist will be stopped even if its one at a time.
Its just sad so many people will die bewteen them and our freedom.

anomaly

Define terrorist?
Rebel??

You strike them they will strike back.
You punch some one for sure you will get one.
Dont say terrorist is muslim. Lame
Sweet thing aboout muslim, you punch them they will smile back.
when you kick them, they forgive you.
But..
When you blow out mosque,when you kill muslim leader, when you take their holy land. They are not angry, they just fight back to carried out their responsibilities. War you give,war you will get back.

Many allience could be set up. the thing is, their responsibilities fight till the last drop of blood. Something you dont have in others religion.

That why you have to define Terrorist first.

Jill@home

Let's be quite frank about this. Everyone and I MEAN EVERYONE is being very closely watched. Anyone WHO EVEN REMOTELY looks suspicious at an airport will be pulled over. All this nonsense about human rights and being stopped just because of the colour of someones skin is total crap. I would not mind in the slightest as I have nothing to hide.
Did you know that all these blog sites are monitored? There are teams of searchers and investigators working around the clock.
It's for all our benefit so what's the problem?
TO ANSWER yourQUESTION.....yes, but only if we get out of other peoples countries.

boyet

Yes.... The truth is that terrorism breaks down respect for life and leads to bloodshead and cruelty.Because of the pain,victims often retliate,which lead to further repression and in turn,to more retaliation.

Buck Flair

The 'war on terror' is a lie. It is the governments who are the real terrorists. THEY are the ones bombing the sh*t out of people, creating propaganda and trying to take people's freedom away.

Through the controlled media they are painting a false picture of a 'war on terror' which is supposedly against Bin Laden and Muslims, even though the FBI admitted there is 'no hard evidence' connecting Bin Laden to 9/11, and there is no real effort to capture him.

It may sound ludicrous to some, so please check out:

www.infowars.com
www.prisonplanet.com
www.propagandamatrix.com

David S

Terrorism will never be stopped.It is the ultimate victory of the voiceless masses against the hypocritical powers-that-be.
Not saying that this is right,but just as I see it.

MAFOKOCHIZHI

There is no way the so-called alliance would win this war. The kind of wars the western alliance has fought with sucess in the past has been the war against dictators and oppressive leaders at most. this is a war aginst faith. those who believe in this faith are ready and willing to die for it.

there are so many Muslims today that would prefer to die for their faiths. One thing that sound funny to me was the recent alarms concerning the British airport plot. There were so many restrictions yet there were some lapses such that if the terrorist realy meant to blow up this planes they could have done that.

you can imaging where passengers are not allowed hand loggages but could go up into the plane with their pens. it could be loaded with anything. all passengers onboard an aircraft are threats to themselves and other passengers.

what the present generation of western leaders need to do is to address the issue of palestinian state critically. I dont know why anyone of them have even failed to reason that it would be easier to deal with palestinians in a palestinian state than stateless palestinians. any crime committed by them if they are given a statehood would be treated as a state crime and would not generate the kind of sympathy it has generated presently.

berrydoo

I think we can win the war, but we have to learn how to fight against it. The ancient Romans had a bad problem with pirates coming ashore, robbing rich people, and then disappearing into the Aegean Sea. But once they finally figured out a good way to funnel them into certain areas where troops were waiting, they were able to defeat them. The point is that terrorism is a new way of fighting, and we haven't figured out the best way to fight. For example, England learned some great strategies for fighting against the Irish Republican Army, and we could learn from that. They managed to get loyal soldiers into the IRA organization, and then they'd spread rumors, and get intelligence, and make everybody suspicious of everybody else. The one thing that terrorist groups can't do is be public. They have to have a lot of trust within their own ranks. So if you can get people into their organizations, and spread suspicion, then they just fall apart on their own. The best example of that is Abu Nidal. He had a huge powerful organization, but Israeli agents infiltrated his group, and he became suspicious of everybody, and one night he ordered 300 people in his own organization murdered, and they weren't powerful anymore.

We also have to address the long term sources of the problem. We need peace between the Israelis and the surrounding Arab countries. We also need to help those countries develop economically. The Gaza strip has 50% unemployment. No wonder the men there are frustrated and angry. It's easy for them to just become full of hate and anger, and blame somebody.

Obviously, these problems arent simple, and it will take a long time, but I think that if we both address the root causes of Arab anger, and infiltrate and disrupt their organizations, we can win the war on terror.

October

It can't be stopped by military means.You can't stop people who are willing to die for their cause by killing them. Yes, every fundamentalist Muslim killed in Iraq or Lebanon produces another fundamentalist Muslim. As repulsive as it seems to the western world, the end to the conflict will be a negotiated one.

brainstorm

There can only be a political answer to terrorism as the British found with the IRA.
For three decades while the IRA were bombing and shooting people in Britain they were supported by certain groups in America especially in New York and Boston
This was common knowledge no attempt was made to keep it secret but the US government did nothing to stop it
The British never managed to defeat the IRA but with 9/11 the americans suddenly discovered that terrorism was a bad thing and the flow of funds from the US dried up.
So the IRA and the British government arranged a cease fire.
In the meantime the UK and Ireland had both joined the European Union and the old desire of a united Ireland had lost its importance for many irish people.

Lacieles

Terrorism will never end, unfortunately. The only way is to live like respective countries such as Malaysia (they allow Islam, all denominations of Christianity and other polytheistic religions to live up till one certain moderate level, that's all). Anyone trying to create chaos in the country shall be apprehended and isolated from the public by ISA (internal security act), no matter if he is a Muslim, Christian, Buddhist or whichever faith he believes in.
Besides, one must NEVER engage in war. You'll find that Malaysia now tries to retain neutrality, even though giving moral support to fight against terrorism & unjust acts around the world.

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