Terrorist are classified by how they fight, not by what side of any given conflict they are on. So the one mans terrorist is another mans rebel is hogwash….. Traditionally, terrorists employ a method of warfare called terrorism. It’s the fact that they choose to use this method that makes one a terrorist.
Without going into detailing what classifies any particular act as terrorism…, Ill offer up this piece on how to fight it at the national level;
"When Devils Walk the Earth."
By Ralph Peters
(Essay Extraction)
Ref:
http://globalspecops.com/fightterror.html
Chapter III. Fighting Terror:
Do's and Don'ts for a Superpower:
1. Be feared!
2. Identify the type of terrorists you face, and know your enemy as well
as you possibly can. Although tactics may be similar, strategies for
dealing with practical vs. apocalyptic terrorists can differ widely.
Practical terrorists may have legitimate grievances that deserve
consideration, although their methods cannot be tolerated. Apocalyptic
terrorists, no matter their rhetoric, seek your destruction and must be
killed to the last man. The apt metaphor is cancer: you cannot hope for
success if you only cut out part of the tumor. For the apocalyptic
terrorist, evading your efforts can easily be turned into a public triumph.
Our bloodiest successes will create far fewer terrorists and sympathizers
than our failures.
3. Do not be afraid to be powerful. Cold War-era gambits of proportionate
response and dialog may have some utility in dealing with practical
terrorists, but they are counter-productive in dealing with apocalyptic
terrorists. Our great strengths are wealth and raw power. When we fail to
bring those strengths to bear, we contribute to our own defeat. For a
superpower to think small, which has been our habit across the last decade,
at least, is self-defeating folly. Our responses to terrorist acts should
make the world gasp!
4. Speak bluntly. Euphemisms are interpreted as weakness by our enemies and
mislead the American people. Speak of killing terrorists and destroying their
organizations. Timid speech leads to timid actions. Explain when necessary,
but do not apologize. Expressions of regret are never seen as a mark of
decency by terrorists or their supporters, but only as a sign that our will
is faltering. Blame the terrorists as the root cause whenever operations have
unintended negative consequences. Never go on the rhetorical defensive.
5. Concentrate on winning the propaganda war where it is winnable. Focus on
keeping or enhancing the support from allies and well-disposed clients, but
do not waste an inordinate amount of effort trying to win unwinnable hearts
and minds. Convince hostile populations through victory.
6. Do not be drawn into a public dialog with terrorists, especially not with
apocalyptic terrorists. You cannot win. You legitimize the terrorists by
addressing them even through a third medium, and their extravagant claims will
resound more successfully on their own home ground than anything you can say.
Ignore absurd accusations, and never let the enemy's claims slow or sidetrack
you. The terrorist wants you to react, and your best means of unbalancing him
and his plan is to ignore his accusations.
7. Avoid planning creep. Within our vast bureaucratic system, too many voices
compete for attention and innumerable agendas, often selfish and personal,
intrude on any attempt to act decisively. Focus on the basic mission: the
destruction of the terrorists with all the moral, intellectual and practical
rigor you can bring to bear. All other issues, from future nation building, to
alliance consensus, to humanitarian concerns are secondary.
8. Maintain resolve. Especially in the Middle East and Central Asia, experts and
diplomats will always present you with a multitude of good reasons for doing
nothing, or for doing too little (or for doing exactly the wrong thing). Fight as
hard as you can within the system to prevent diplomats from gaining influence
over the strategic campaign. Although their intentions are often good, our
diplomats and their obsolete strategic views are the terrorist's unwitting allies
and diplomats are extremely jealous of military success and military authority in
their region (where their expertise is never as deep or subtle as they believe it
to be). Beyond the problem with our diplomats, the broader forces of bureaucratic
entropy are an internal threat. The counter-terrorist campaign must be not only
resolute, but constantly self-rejuvenating in ideas, techniques, military and
inter-agency combinations, and sheer energy. Old hands must be stimulated
constantly by new ideas.
9. When in doubt, hit harder than you think necessary. Success will be forgiven.
Even the best-intentioned failure will not. When military force is used against
terrorist networks, it should be used with such power that it stuns even our
allies. We must get over our cowardice in means. While small-scale raids and
other knifepoint operations are useful against individual targets, broader
operations should be overwhelming. Of course, targeting limitations may inhibit
some efforts but whenever possible, maximum force should be used in simultaneous
operations at the very beginning of a campaign. Do not hesitate to supplement
initial target lists with extensive bombing attacks on nothing if they can
increase the initial psychological impact. Demonstrate power whenever you can.
Show; don't tell!
10. Whenever legal conditions permit, kill terrorists on the spot (Do not give
them a chance to surrender, if you can help it.) Contrary to academic wisdom,
the surest way to make a martyr of a terrorist is to capture, convict and
imprison him, leading to endless efforts by sympathizers to stage kidnappings,
hijacking and other events intended to liberate the imprisoned terrorist(s).
This is war, not law enforcement.
11. Never listen to those who warn that ferocity on our part reduces us to the
level of the terrorists. That is the argument of the campus, not of the
battlefield, and it insults America's service members and the American people.
Historically, we have proven, time after time, that we can do a tough, dirty
job for our country without any damage to our nation's moral fabric (Hiroshima
and Nagasaki did not interfere with American democracy, values or behavior.)
12. Spare and protect innocent civilians whenever possible, but: Do not let the
prospect of civilian casualties interfere with ultimate mission accomplishment.
This is a fight to protect the American people, and we must do so whatever the
cost, or the price in American lives may be devastating. In a choice between
them and us, the choice is always us.
13. Do not allow the terrorists to hide behind religion. Apocalyptic terrorists
cite religion as a justification for attacking us; in turn, we cannot let them
hide behind religious holidays, taboos, strictures or even sacred terrain. We
must establish a consistent reputation for relentless pursuit and destruction
of those who kill our citizens. Until we do this, our hesitation will continue
to strengthen our enemy's ranks and his resolve.
14. Do not allow third parties to broker a peace, a truce, or any pause in
operations. One of the most difficult challenges in fighting terrorism on a
global scale is the drag produced by nervous allies. We must be single-minded.
The best thing we can do for our allies in the long-term is to be so resolute
and so strong that they value their alliance with us all the more. We must
recognize the innate strength of our position and stop allowing regional leaders
with counterproductive local agendas to subdue or dilute our efforts.
15. Don't flinch. If an operation goes awry and friendly casualties
are unexpectedly high, immediately bolster morale and the military's image by
striking back swiftly in a manner that inflicts the maximum possible number of
casualties on the enemy and his supporters. Hit back as graphically as possible,
to impress upon the local and regional players that you weren't badly hurt or
deterred in the least.
16. Do not worry about alienating already-hostile populations.
17. Whenever possible, humiliate your enemy in the eyes of his own people.
Do not try to use reasonable arguments against him. Shame him publicly, in any
way you can. Create doubt where you cannot excite support. Most apocalyptic
terrorists, especially, come from cultures of male vanity. Disgrace them at every
opportunity. Done successfully, this both degrades them in the eyes of their
followers and supporters, and provokes the terrorist to respond, increasing his
vulnerability.
18. If the terrorists hide, strike what they hold dear, using clandestine means,
whenever possible, foreign agents to provoke them to break cover and react.
Do not be squeamish. Your enemy is not. Subtlety is not superpower strength but
the raw power to do that, which is necessary, is our great advantage. We forget
that, while the world may happily chide or accuse us-or complain of our
inhumanity-no one can stop us if we maintain our strength of will. Much of the
world will complain no matter what we do. Hatred of America is the default
position of failed individuals and failing states around the world, in every
civilization, and there is nothing we can do to change their minds. We refuse to
understand how much of humanity will find excuses for evil, so long as the evil
strikes those who are more successful than the apologists themselves. This is as
true of American academics, whose eagerness to declare our military efforts a
failure is unflagging, or European clerics, who still cannot forgive America's
magnanimity at the end of World War II, as it is of unemployed Egyptians or
Pakistanis. The psychologically marginalized are at least as dangerous as the
physically deprived.
19. Do not allow the terrorists sanctuary in any country, at any time, under any
circumstances. Counter-terrorist operations must, above all, be relentless. This
does not necessarily mean that military operations will be constantly underway
sometimes it will be surveillance efforts, or deception plans, or operations by
other agencies. But the overall effort must never pause for breath. We must be
faster, more resolute, more resourceful and, ultimately, even more uncompromising
than our enemies.
20. Never declare victory. Announce successes and milestones. But never give the
terrorists a chance to embarrass you after a public pronouncement that the war is
over.
21. Impress upon the minds of terrorists and potential terrorists everywhere, and
upon the populations and governments inclined to support them, that American
retaliation will be powerful and uncompromising. You will never deter fanatics,
but you can frighten those who might support, harbor or attempt to use terrorists
for their own ends. Our basic task in the world today is to restore a sense of
American power, capabilities and resolve. We must be hard, or we will be struck
wherever we are soft. It is folly for charity to precede victory. First win, then
unclench your fist.
22. Do everything possible to make terrorists and their active supporters live in
terror themselves. Turn the tide psychologically and practically. While this will
not deter hard-core apocalyptic terrorists, it will dissipate their energies as
they try to defend themselves and fear will deter many less-committed supporters
of terror. Do not be distracted by the baggage of the term assassination. This is
a war. The enemy, whether a hijacker or a financier, violates the laws of war by
his refusal to wear a uniform and by purposely targeting civilians. He is by
definition a war criminal. On our soil, he is either a spy or a saboteur, and not
entitled to the protections of the U.S. Constitution. Those who abet terrorists
must grow afraid to turn out the lights to go to sleep.
23. Never accept the consensus of the Washington intelligentsia, which looks
backward to past failures, not forward to future successes.
24. In dealing with Islamic apocalyptic terrorists, remember that their most
cherished symbols are fewer and far more vulnerable than are the West's.
Ultimately, no potential target can be regarded as off-limits when the United
States is threatened with mass casualties. Worry less about offending foreign
sensibilities and more about protecting Americans.
25. Do not look for answers in recent history, which is still unclear and subject
to personal emotion. Begin with the study of the classical world, specifically
Rome, which is the nearest model to the present-day United States. Mild with
subject peoples, to whom they brought the rule of ethical law, the Romans in
their rise and at their apogee were implacable with their enemies. The utter
destruction of Carthage brought centuries of local peace, while the later empire's
attempts to appease barbarians consistently failed!