Is the ‘war on terror’ winnable?

The war may be ‘global’ in terms of support but it is really/essentially just ‘concentrated’ in the Pak-Afghan border where all the ‘main’ bad guys/al-queda-operatives/etc, rest/reside. Slam/waste/catch the leaders of the cause and the cause is as good as dead; and the rest is history.

Obama has increased the number of troops sent to the region, keeping/maintaining the odds of ‘winning’ in western favor/favour.

To paraphrase Obama: It isn’t important that God/Allah/Yah-weh/Baghwan is on our side but that ‘WE’ are on the side of God.

What sympathizers in the government? We don’t see these ‘sympathisers’ on the Pakistani media.

Of course people who have friends and relatives dying in the name of ‘collateral’ damage, would not be ‘happy’ with the coalition military (inclusive of the Pakistani military).

The clause in your argument is in seeing this as a battle between the west and the east, much like Bush’s description:’the crusades’.

BUT The war against terror is not the war against Islam or the war against eastern values.It is the war against terrorism of any kind.

As far as corruption in Afghanistan is concerned: they take bribes ‘given’ by the west.

“while the government is adopting an aggressive approach to the tribal areas, the nation itself is still an extremely volitile place. One spark and the whole operation could come to a standstill. Additionally the western powers, while willing to put pressure on Pakistan, they won’t order them in what they should do, perhaps due to the fact they have nuclear missiles.” you’re hypothesizing:

Pakistan has caught many Al-queda operatives as well as nabbed ‘innocent’ people(alleged terrorists) and sold them to the C.I.A, which is why the U.N and a bunch of humanitarian organizations are cracking down on Musharraf. [[http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/12-un%20team%20wants%20to%20quiz%20musharraf–bi-06]]


There are sympathizers of ‘justice’/philanthropy/’human rights’:
There are no sympathizers for people who kill Pakistani residents/civilians by blowing themselves up in public arenas or the people who recruit/train these suicide bombers. Would you (genuinely)support a cause that is bent on killing you, your friends and/or your family? People might say that they support them to avert being the next victim but obviously people don’t really sympathize.

Fallacy:’An enemy not afraid of death’:

The leaders/masterminds/heads/big-dogs ‘ARE’ afraid of death, that is precisely why most suicide bombers are children/young-men/juvenile-delinquents. They are ‘recruits’ with young impressionable minds not the big fat evil bad guys.

The big dogs, train/recruit/brainwash/[sometimes even blackmail(if you don’t blow yourself up, your family’s dead) or bribe(If you do this you will be honoured for your ‘shahadat'(martyrdom) and your family will be paid off)] young males, mostly from poverty stricken areas.

Get your facts straight

In this respect Pakistani residents are much like Israeli residents: Generally Israeli/Pakistani citizens do not advocate the wrongs done to recruits/potential-suicide-bombers(Palestinians/Northern-Pakistanis) and oppose their own governments for unlawful torture/kidnappings/maltreatment/crimes-against-humanity etc

But that does not in any way mean the residents ‘sympathize’ with people who come into their public places(restaurants/mosques/synagogues) and blow themselves(and a number of ‘innocent-civilians’: the same ‘residents’) up. Why would anyone support being murdered?

Divide and rule:

Everything is going according to plan: millions of innocents and operatives are dying and support for militants is evaporating in the Muslim world and is resting in Obama’s America’s favor. [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/19/alqaida.terrorism]]

The fundamentalist movement is fragmented/disunited ‘divide and rule’ works and has withstood the test of time. Genghis Khan would have appreciated this military tactic and shook his head with disappointment at the Islamic insurgency which continues to shatter to shards.

[[http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=2602]]

Now, we don’t have Bush, aggravating/angering people with the use of the word ‘crusades’. Alternatively saying things like (I,paraphrase) terrorists are not criminals and should not be treated as such but we should hunt them like criminals (he asked to renew the patriot act).

But that was 2004. Now, we have Obama, who will have troops out of Iraq by 2011, he would never make the mistake of calling the ‘war on terror’, ‘the crusades’. He doesn’t mispronounce people/places/country’s names(Saddam is not soddom(from sodomy), nuclear(nu-clee-er) is not ‘new killer’ and yes, the world is as it should be)

Obama has intensified the action in the Pak-Afghan border where all the big-bosses of Islamic fundamentalist organizations reside(according to an increasing variety of sources over the years, even during the Bush-era).

This president, despite how much opposition he faces in the U.S(by Michael Moore and the like) for sending more troops, understands that more troops means less time/effort to defeat the enemy.

More troops means more people looking for Al-Queda operatives and a greater chance of catching them.

Obama is attacking the problem full throttle (just as he is attacking all other problems) and his country’s present American sacrifices will bear more fruit for America than America ever had, in the future. This war will be won because it is being fought with full force, with more than enough resources(thousands of troops to catch less than a hundred Al-Queda big guns) and with the backing of millions.

Nip it in the bud.

Get to the root of the problem.

The recruits are not the ‘real’ threat, the ‘charismatic’ leaders are.

Which is why capturing these leaders/head-operatives/main-bad-guys is of the utmost importance.

There are millions of followers but only a handful of leaders, the leaders are the problem, ‘SHEEP/recruits will listen to anything’; the recruits will not be a problem IF there is no one egging them on or telling them what to do/who to fight/where to blow themselves up.

The ‘war on terror’ is winnable if, broadly speaking, we take the phrase to refer to U.S. led efforts to prevent (or reduce significantly) acts of terrorism.

Rather than religious fanaticism, political grievances (often in conjunction with economic factors) are the dominant cause of a majority of terrorist acts. This has been confirmed by Professor Riaz Hassan of Flinders University, Adelaide: “Contrary to the popular image that suicide terrorism is an outcome of irrational religious fanaticism, suicide bombing attacks are resolutely a politically-motivated phenomenon” http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/what-motivates-suicide-bombers-0

The author goes onto to describe the political and economic factors which influence Palestinian suicide bombers. On an external level, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the perceived imbalance in Western, particularly U.S., policy toward it, is consistently used as a recruiting tool by Islamic fundamentalists. If policymakers work toward addressing legitimate grievances, in this instance an illegal and brutal military occupation, then it is possible to make significant progress in reducing the numbers of people motivated into joining extremist organisations and committing acts of terrorism. As noted by Richard Clarke, former chair of the counterterrorism group for the Bush administration: “I understood, if we could achieve a Middle East peace much of the popular support for Al Qaeda and much of the hatred for America would disappear overnight” (Clarke :2004, p167).

The war on terrorism began in 1948 when Israel was created. The newly formed UN decided that as Paelstine was under the British thumb, Britain could allow Jewish people to have a homeland there. BIG MISTAKE.

The Palestinians are Muslims, part of Islam’s UMMAH, it’s brotherhood. Muslims from all over will fight to get Palestine back to Palestinians, even if it means attacking countries who bankroll or support israel.

Terrorists did not hate US and UK because of their race or religion orginally. They hated what they had done to the Palestinian people.

The sinsiter terrorism witnessed on 9/11 or 7/7 was what grew out of the Palestinian fight.

If these terrorists admit that this is what their problem is, and Israel stop building settlements and the UN rehomes them properly this time, terrorism will evetually disappear. The USA nd UK also need to leave Afghanistan and Iraq.

Success within the ‘war on terror’ is dependent upon the ability of the international community to neutralise the array of threats posed to the west by advocates of Islamic extremism and the growing network of disenfranchised individual who are willing to pursue its political and symbolic objectives by utilising systematic acts of violence within western lands. As well as demanding a concerted effort to strengthen national security and resilience mechanisms, sustainable success requires that a central focus is similarly placed upon defeating and dismantling extremist groups like Al-Qaeda and continuing to deny their operatives safe havens within unstable regions such in Afghanistan and the federally administered tribal areas of Pakistan. Due to the pervasive nature of insurgent activity within the region, the stabilization of Afghanistan increasingly demands a concerted counterinsurgency (COIN) effort to secure key population centres and prevent extremist groups from gaining momentum in their attempts to expand their spheres of influence. For COIN to be successful within the current Afghanistan campaign, international efforts must employ a fully comprehensive strategy that encapsulates a coordinated and unified effort amongst all the actors involved. This must span an encompassing spectrum of political, military and economic capabilities.

A comprehensive approach has therefore not yet been fully adopted as there is a disproportionate emphasis upon the military aspect of the campaign and short fallings in, and militarisation of both civil capacity building and economic development efforts, as well as a lacking unity of effort and overall unity of command amongst the multiple dimensions of international contributions which intersect every level of the stabilisation effort in the region. For the comprehensive approach to be fully realised, greater balance between the pillars must be achieved if international efforts are to be successful in neutralising the insurgency, dismantling Al-Qaeda, preventing the return of Afghanistan to Taliban control, and ensuring that Afghanistan does not again become a sanctuary for radical Islamists and a training ground for further terrorist attacks against the west.

The emphasis must therefore be on the political effort as the continued asymmetric focus upon the military dimension will create further fragility, instability and insecurity. Furthermore, a politically unified front must be maintained where the military effort is but one of multiple efforts under an overall coordinated and unified command. Otherwise, shortcomings in the adoption of a comprehensive approach will continue to have significant repercussions which will further hinder regional stabilization. This will further impact upon the ability of the international community to address key grievances within Afghanistan and ensure that legitimate governance is maintained, as well as its ability to successfully train Afghan security forces and enable Afghanistan to provide security to its citizens and overcome the excessive levels of corruption that are deep rooted within every level of Afghanistan’s national infrastructure. This kind of approach must draw upon the lessons learnt from previous COIN campaigns both inside and outside of Afghanistan and should involve greater harmonisation between civil capacity building and economic development efforts as well as among different national military contributions, where the military effort should be refocused into a lighter, smaller force concentrated on the more narrowly defined task of counter terrorism.

This should compliment a bottom-up approach to responsible governance where stability is first established at a provincial level rather than nurturing attempts to facilitate stability from a top-down state level. Such efforts should be firmly rooted within the context of a wider regional emphasis upon stabilisation, particularly in relation to Pakistan, and should focus upon fostering an environment where the Afghans are in the lead and it becomes clear to the world that the international community is willing and prepared to commit to a long term involvement in resourcing and securing the stabilisation of the region. Momentum must therefore be maintained in preventing the insurgency from gaining increased support from the populace and in making its members realise that they must negotiate with the current Afghan leadership, with whom responsibility for the secure and peaceful future of Afghanistan must ultimately rest.

Counter argument:

But ‘Terror’,need not be interpreted as ‘only’ Islamic fundamentalists and can be nomenclature-ed to mean Terror from both sides of the world.

IF in the end, philanthropic humanitarian organisations from both the Maghreb (east) and the Mashriq (west) will/should fight ALL evil doing terrorists (unlawful prisoner-tormentors and alleged terrorist trainers from clandestine intelligence agencies such as the C.I.A, I.S.I, R.A.W et cetera (and the rest) included, as well as bomb-scare/murderous/torturing/massacring/demented-artists of all races, religions, countries, shapes and sizes).

THEN, since the line between good and bad would be distinct and clear, there is a wonderful chance that the war on terror will be won.

THERE is no inherent distinction between good and bad. Long live the Rights of Man, the rights of the individual, not the rights of the state.

Controlling the narrative, who’s brainwashing who?

[[http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4820]]

Terrorists are using the media to promote/victimize themselves, their cause and to brainwash/recruit young gullible and impressionable minds. They are wise to the ploy and use ‘disinformation/subliminal messaging et cetera; to promote ‘their’ cause.

Ne’er the twain shall meet you say, but the proposition begs to differ.

Christian and Jew-relations have come a long way since the Nazi era. (Even with the existence of the K.K.K, Neo-Nazis and other extremist organisation/groups that were once predominant in the West. History is proof that widespread seemingly invincible Extremism can be defeated or at least shrunk to an almost invisible degree)

[[http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/spain_1.shtml#section_3]]- Muslims made the baby/first steps towards secularism; before any other religious/sacrilegious following.

All religious groups have (had) extremist iconoclastic divisions that were at times dominant but I iterate, dialog, awareness, sharing common-traits/beliefs/emotions/ideals(human beings are social animals : there are always some similarities between two people/groups even if they are in human nature alone) and open non-violent-discussion will in time give way to winning the war.

Insha Allah(By the grace of God)

You’re in error in stating(or at least implying) that the war is about ‘converting people to Christianity’; it isn’t: and it would be foolish if it were, given how the west claims to be secular: tolerant of all religions and excluding the dominance/dictate of any one belief in infrastructure/government/etcetera.

This kind of diversion/misconception is one the factors that charges people up against the coalition(other than ‘collateral damage’, ‘torture’, ‘arrests without warrants etc’.)

Problem is, that both the coalition forces and the other side(Taliban/Al-Queda/etc) are looking to forcibly convert people to their point of view through the use of |Violent explosive force; literally.

We shouldn’t forget that Islamic extremists are ‘major-ly/mostly/by-and-large’ attacking/appealing-to Muslims in Muslim countries. They are violent missionaries out to convert Muslims to their version of Islam.

Where as ‘forced-conversions’ such as those by Christians during the Spanish inquisition are not inherently a part of Islam. [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/spain_1.shtml#section_3]]

Historically non-Muslims in Muslim-ruled countries were second-class citizens(not forcibly converted), or in the case of India under Mughal(Akbar and din-e-elahi)rule; equals(The Hindu majority was preserved in the Mughal era).

The war is officially/on-paper: Against Islamic extremists who are trying to use fear/force/violence to control/convert people to their ideas.

America is not saying ‘Islam’ is wrong(that would be politically incorrect, not a position a democrat/liberal government can afford to take), it is just saying stop killing people or trying to enslave/inveigle them to your cause by killing their peers, just because they do not agree with you.

The Coalition’s intentions are great/honorable but how they’re being practiced/implemented(callous massacres of innocent people, in the name of collateral damage, nabbing people from their homes with little evidence and then subjecting them to medieval methods of torture, blowing up red cross hospitals etc etc) is counterproductive(except to arms/ammunition producing companies(in the U.S and Netherlands)

This is a counter to the argument ‘There is no such thing as war on terror, it is a conspiracy ‘.

This point deploys no evidence and should be dismissed by all readers. Without evidence, this point should not be given the slightest consideration in this debate.