Will Military Action Eliminate Mid East Terrorism?

I think it's going to take more than military action alone to eliminate mid east terrorism. It will require a political solution as well which means our policies regarding the mid east will have to change. There are a lot of different aspects to the situation there and we do have conflicting interests there. That's all I have time for right now.

Everyone (the US citizenry, NATO, the world at large, the terrorists themselves, me) expect a prompt military response. I want it to be comprehensive. I want it to be military. I want it to be prompt. Anything else would be an enourmous mistake. Kill Ossama Bin Laden and pals first. Explain it to them later.


I am completely earnest.

I agree but to think that such an action will end mid east terrorism I think is being overly optimistic (understatement of the year?). Also I believe we need to eliminate bin Laden. However doing so won't eliminate mid east terrorism either. Don't get me wrong we need to something along the lines you recommend but it will not eliminate the problem because as many have pointed out it doesn't change any of the root causes. We have a dependency on mid east oil and a committment to Israel that greatly influence our positions there and thus how we are perceived in that part of the world. Bush seems to be doing the right things now and hopefully will lead us through this mess. It won't be resolved in a matter of weeks or months though.

The total elimination of terrorism is not a realistic goal. However, I think and hope it is possible to greatly reduce or eliminate the threat of sophisticated, large scale attacks which can cause the type of destruction seen on 9/11 or worse.

I don't think that eliminating bin Laden will do the trick. We should eliminate him but we will need to do more I believe.

Or can it?..


Gosh, this stuff requires serious thinking. Oh well. Make mine sunny side up, please.

Why does everyone assume that because there are people who hate us and try to fight us, we must be doing something wrong? Is there any reason to believe that the existence of these terrorists means we are doing something wrong? Are the goals of terrorists or the reasons behind their actions automatically reasonable ones? Force of conviction does not imply a basis in fact. Saying that we must change our policies in the Middle East because of this attack is the same as saying that we should agree to the demands of the terrorists. We should evaluate the situation there in an attempt to resolve the problems. We should step up our efforts to do so. We may, however, not be able to find a solution, after all, we've been striving to create peace in the region for many years. There may not be a solution.

I submit that our reliance on imported oil is putting us in bed with some very strange bedfellows.

You wrote "We [Americans] have been striving to create peace in the region for many years."


No-pe.


Supporting unilaterally, consistently & unconditionally only ONE side in any kind of conflict, not to mention a volatile and complex keg such as Middle East, is not peace making. It is fire fuelling. Ask your personnel manager.