Originally Posted by charlatan

I am not saying this at all... I was simply trying to be clear (in perhaps a sarcastic way) that invasion is not diplomacy.


I don't thing we should negotiate with terrorists at all. Just like we don't negotiate with other criminals. We arrest and prosecute them.

You can't fight terrorism with an army in the traditional sense. Terrorists don't have a nation to invade. They don't have a city to siege.

We need to get out of the traditional headspace of war. We like the Polish fight blitzkrieg with a cavalry.

Invading Afghanistan and Iraq is not going to stop it. Levelling the entire middle east is not going to stop it. We need to get our head around the idea that we can't stop it. It is a fact of life. Terrorism is going to happen. We need to take appropriate steps to prevent it from happening much like we would try to prevent crime in our neighbourhoods - security and policing.

We don't level problem neighbourhoods, we present a combined effort of policing and anti-poverty/communtiy education. In other words we isolate those who would commit crimes by giving those in the communtiy who would prevent crimes something to live for, something to aspire to, etc.

The worst thing you can do is islolate those who would gladly be on the side of "good" by killing and bombing them. It makes the vitriol of the criminals sound like the "right thing to do".