Posted on May 25, 2015
When will we realize victory in the War on Terror?
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How and when will we realize the point of victory in the War on Terror? Will it be lasting? What will it look like? Is it possible? Is it likely? What will be the final cost of victory over terror?
War on Terror
Foreign Policy
Warfare
Ethics
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 27
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Simply put, how does one win a war against ideology?
Wars on Drugs, Wars on Poverty, Wars on Terrors make great soundbites, but how can they be accomplished? Or accomplished via the current metrics (at least).
Wars on Drugs, Wars on Poverty, Wars on Terrors make great soundbites, but how can they be accomplished? Or accomplished via the current metrics (at least).
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LTC Yinon Weiss
Terrorism is not really an ideology. It is a tactic use in support of an ideology. Declaring a war against a tactic is possibly even worse and more futile than declaring a war against an ideology.
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Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
LTC Yinon Weiss I was thinking "Terror" as opposed to Terrorism, but I think we are on the same page. These "Conceptual" Wars are futile as you say.
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SSG Kevin McCulley
The truth is that we haven't really been doing these things all the way. When you fight a war, you have to conquer. Anything else is a delaying action for another later war. War is a nasty, bloody, horrible thing. What must come afterwords to the defeated is equally distasteful. They must be broken of a desire to make war again. If you can not stomach the second part, never engage in the first.
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This may be a news flash for some people, but US military stopped fighting a "War on Terror" several years ago. The term is not used by any politicians in charge, and it's not used in any military planning or operations. It is simply no longer a relevant term in military operations... which is a positive change, since I agree with many others here that declaring a war against a tactic is not an effective way to win. It would be similar to declaring a war on ambushes. How can you win a war against a tactic?
"We must define our effort not as a boundless 'Global War on Terror', but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America." - President Obama
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/05/23/obama-global-war-on-terror-is-over
"We must define our effort not as a boundless 'Global War on Terror', but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America." - President Obama
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/05/23/obama-global-war-on-terror-is-over
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1LT William Clardy
I'd be less worried if somebody on Pennsylvania Avenue or Capitol Hill could manage to at least fulfill the first 5 words of that quote with some consistency, LTC Yinon Weiss.
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Apparently, never ... every gain we make we just give away. To be perfectly honest, the "war on terror" is starting to look a lot like the "war on drugs" ...
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SGT Jeremiah B.
Undecided, GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad . The question really revolves around whether any gains we made were real. I'm not convinced they were. The problems that led to those losses weren't fixable in any realistic timeline and the winds were turning against us again with regards to the Iraqi people.
How exactly does one "gain" against unattainable objectives?
How exactly does one "gain" against unattainable objectives?
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PO3 Jonathan Cooper
GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad I think we all know how well that war on drugs has worked out...
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