ISIS
Winning
Terrorism
GWOT
Responses: 50
You can't win a war on a tactic (i.e. terrorism), not any more than you can win a "war on ambushes" or a "war on shooting". Now, if you want to win a war against Islamic terrorists, that is a different question. For that, and from my humble point of view, I would lay out 3 principles:
1) We have to recognize and admit to ourselves who the actual enemy is. We cannot win a 'war on terror' -- for we cannot win a war on a tactic that has always existed and that will always exist. We can't defeat an enemy if we can't even agree on who the enemy is. Let's get there first.
2) We must think in terms of decades and generations, not years and battles. We have generations of children growing up taught nothing but hate. We may win some of them back, but we have to accept that we will not undo that hatred for at least a generation or two at best. All of our military, diplomatic, and economic programs must be built with that frame of reference. Short term fixes are the last lines of defense, disrupting planned operations and dropping bombs on leaders, but let's not confuse these short term tactics for a long term strategy. Long term strategy is a multi-generational cultural and economic change. Not sexy and not very politically popular to say.
3) Muslim governments and institutions must take an active leadership role in this change. The values of respect for life must come through Muslim institutions, it cannot be forced upon from the West. Until this happens, there is no plausible victory.
1) We have to recognize and admit to ourselves who the actual enemy is. We cannot win a 'war on terror' -- for we cannot win a war on a tactic that has always existed and that will always exist. We can't defeat an enemy if we can't even agree on who the enemy is. Let's get there first.
2) We must think in terms of decades and generations, not years and battles. We have generations of children growing up taught nothing but hate. We may win some of them back, but we have to accept that we will not undo that hatred for at least a generation or two at best. All of our military, diplomatic, and economic programs must be built with that frame of reference. Short term fixes are the last lines of defense, disrupting planned operations and dropping bombs on leaders, but let's not confuse these short term tactics for a long term strategy. Long term strategy is a multi-generational cultural and economic change. Not sexy and not very politically popular to say.
3) Muslim governments and institutions must take an active leadership role in this change. The values of respect for life must come through Muslim institutions, it cannot be forced upon from the West. Until this happens, there is no plausible victory.
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SSG (Join to see)
Agree with Maj comments. True, true. To think that they comprise of different races, we might even come across one of our own. We have to educate our children, guide them the right way, cause this will never end.
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LCpl Jesse Foust
1LT Timothy Schlink - You are incorrect. The separation of church and state only means that the government cannot impose a religion on you. People, even government officials, are free to practice religion as they wish and the name of cities has little to no effect on politics.
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11
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0
There will always be Terror. We can defeat any Identified enemy. To do so we have to change our way of operating. Our politicians do not know how to wage war. They must Identify the enemy, decide the desired outcome, consult the Generals and Admirals, and turn us loose to do the job. The camera on the battlefield and the ROE is the same as a handcuff to the infantry. We will continue to lose until these desk jockeys in DC allow the military to run the war. Any country we take over we keep or give to an Allie any country we assist we make them pay the total cost of our assistance.
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PO1 Bill Adams
1SG, you sound a lot like the Vets I heard talk with about Vietnam. Same thing Politicians micro managing something they have no knowledge of.
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8
8
0
No more than we can win the war on ambushes or flanking attacks. Declaring war on a tactic is the height of silliness.
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