Craven Morehead

What can the common man do to bring an end to terrorism? Terrorism for the most part is not a state supported activity, but one of indviduals working in concert against a civilized society. In traditonal wars, its country against country. In the war on terrorism, its no longer the traditional battle front, its on an individal basis. So, since its at our level, what can we do to prevent terrorism? In its most basic form its man against man. Surely there is something we can do.

onetime2

Secretly kill every terrorist you know that way it doesn't make them martyrs it just makes them missing.

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Strive to be more curious than ignorant.

Averett

Listen to Bender.... Kill All Humans.

But uhh... seriously. I have no idea

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Absence is to love what wind is to fire. It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

Ripsaw

Learn to forgive.

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"We are supposed to be masters of space, but we cant even line up our shoes?"

One life, one chance, one opportunity.

Averett

Who needs to learn to forgive? The terrorists or their victims?

__________________
Absence is to love what wind is to fire. It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

Ripsaw

Think about it for a few minutes.

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"We are supposed to be masters of space, but we cant even line up our shoes?"

One life, one chance, one opportunity.

Glory's Sun

sounds rather utopian in theory.

Averett

I did. Why don't you just tell me what you mean? I could think about it, come up with my answer which might very well be completely off base from what you are meaning.

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Absence is to love what wind is to fire. It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

Ripsaw

The war on terrorism we are dealing with now stems from long past conflicts that were never truly ended. In my statement I was not talking about victims, or aggressors. I was talking about human beings. The people perpetrating these acts have clear goals and targets, and proven methodology. They know they cannot fight a stand up battle against the most powerful military in the world. But they can pick off a convoy truck and hold the drivers hostage while they demand that headscarves be allowed in French schools. Fostering hatred and reminding children every day that the jihad was brought on by the West prevents the peaceful end to a conflict that wastes everyone's time, energy and effort. There are more factors than this, but I do not have the expertise to go into them.

Random terror cannot be dealt with by forgiveness. Random terror must be eliminated.

I like to let people think for themselves. I have never taught anyone anything that they did not learn themselves. Whether or not you were 'on base' does not detract from the discussion.

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"We are supposed to be masters of space, but we cant even line up our shoes?"

One life, one chance, one opportunity.

roachboy

"terrorism"..."the common man"....jeez....

if the action you are talking about occurs far away: there is nothing you can do.
chances are that if you watch it on tv, you will understand alomst nothing about what is going on anyway. you will know about the violence. you will always know about the violence. if it bleeds it leads.

if the action that you are talking about occurs in a context you can help to shape: work to change the situation.
try to keep political opposition within the boundaries of the conventional process.
even if that requires a radical critique of the existing order, of the existing "conventional" political mechanisms for channelling dissent.
because almost all "terrorist" acts are political.
most are undertaken by people who have no hope of altering the oppressive situation in which they find themselves (situations that they understand as oppressive, as dehumanizing) by conventional political means.
most are undertaken by people who understand themselves as invisible politically, for one reason or another.
most are undertaken by people who see the situation in which they find themselves as grinding away their dignity.
most such acts are theater.

we have the pleasure of living in a climate at the moment in which any attempt to understand what might motivate a "terrorist" action is seen as condoning those actions.
i suspect there will be some who read this and interpret it that way.
however, you could also see it as saying that if you dont try to look at how these actions might come to be considered, all you will be able to do is say tsk tsk tsk as you watch pictures of carnage unfold in your living room on television.
occaisionally you reflect and wonder what you might do----even though you know, if you think about it, that the tv coverage is framing these matters in such a ways as to imply that there is nothing you can do and that the theater of oppression needs to be countered with the theater of state power.

either way, lots of innocent people die.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

The Phenomenon

Well people change their minds about terrorists all the time.

20-30 years ago the international community saw the ANC as a terrorist organization in South Africa, Margareth Thatcher even speached about it. Now they are seen as the holy freedom fighters. Their past sins are now justified all of the sudden.

Not too long ago the Taliban was seen as a brave lot of Freedom Fighters fighting against Russia for their freedom. Today the very same group is seen as a bunch of terrorists.

The difference between a terrorist and a freedom fighter is merely on which side you're on. If they are against you, Al Qaeda is terrorists. However for many in the Muslim world they are freedom fighters fighting against the moral corruption of the west.

gondath

Terrorism is not restricted solely to the Middle Eastern people. It has been around as a style of opposition for a very long time. The situations that bring about terrorists vary between cultures. The best that can be done is to understand the reasons they fight. Then once you understand the motivation, work to change the conditions that brought about the situation or stay the hell out of it. The United States hasn't yet learned that lesson.

clavus

"Fighting terrorism" is yet another boneheaded, meaningless phrase thrust upon us. There are people who belong to various groups that fight via unconventional, asymetrical means.

What can we do? Vote for the guy who you think is going to do the best job of eliminating these groups as threats to us.

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Ass, gas or grass. Nobody rides for free.

Lebell

Without trying to sound trite or like I'm pushing an agenda, Jesus answered this question already.

Love God and Love your Neighbor as yourself.

It's that simple...and that hard.

And sometimes people will kill you for it if you are too successful.

But that's ok too.

__________________
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." – C. S. Lewis

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tropple

Bah. I am forced to disagree, Lebell. Religion is, and has always been, a constant source of agony and destruction.

If a god or gods exist, how would you define it/them? In my humble thoughts, I can see two definitions:

1. god loves to torment humans because it lets us hurt each other so easily.
2. god created and moved along because there was nothing to see here except another bad experiment.

__________________
+++++++++++Boom!

rainheart

Remember the Maquis from Star-Trek?

Yeah.

Rdr4evr

Terrorism will never be stopped because their will always be a disturbed individual who believes his actions are justified. I could take an explosive and detonate it at my neighborhood coffee shop for a ridiculous cause that I believe is right and kill innocent people, and nobody can stop me. This is the unfortunate level that civilization has reached, and it is only going to go in the wrong direction from this point forward. We have reached a level where the death of children due to some dictator’s greed is hardly abnormal anymore. This is the sad and unfortunate truth. The only way terrorism will ever cease to exist is if human civilization is exterminated.

ARTelevision

Sometimes clavus says exactly what I think. I scroll down a thread to post a response. Then I read clavus, like in this thread. Sometimes I don't post then. This time, I'll just say "ditto."

""Fighting terrorism" is yet another boneheaded, meaningless phrase thrust upon us. There are people who belong to various groups that fight via unconventional, asymetrical means.

What can we do? Vote for the guy who you think is going to do the best job of eliminating these groups as threats to us."

__________________
create evolution

MSD

It sounds great on paper, but in practice it works about as well as communism.

As long as people are willing to fight to the death for a cause, there will be terrorists and freedom fighters, depending on who's talking about them.

meembo

There is no end to terrorism, or badness, or cruelty, or selfishness. We need to avoid it ourselves, and not feed it -- that's all we can do. Doing the right thing is also a very powerful thing, but it's not a war to win, it's a battle that never ends.

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less I say, smarter I am

tecoyah

Regime change......at home.
We as individuals have the power to create change in our foriegn policy....that is where we must begin. Attacking countries will only piss off, and alienate countries. Todays terrorist is not a part of government, but as stated, an individual/group bent on societal change. We need friends, not enemies....but that takes compromise and work....something sorely missing right now in the U.S.

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Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

OpieCunningham

This is exactly correct.

None of the other suggestions are capable of ending terrorism.

It may only sound "good on paper", but the entire discussion of "how can we stop terrorism" is only as strong as the paper it's written on.

filtherton

Terrorism will never be conquered until humans stop controlling eachother through implied threats. More to the point, terrorism will never be conquered.

tropple

Dreamer.

Societal change? Hah! Might as well eat the pipe, then, to let the murderer's squeeze in some more child killing.

__________________
+++++++++++Boom!

tecoyah

Wow.....so profound I am at a loss....done here

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Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

Flyguy

I am pretty much convinced that it's the media who has us scared of terrorists, not the actual terrorists themselves.

But as to the power of one person alone being able to stop it? I'd hate to say it but there isn't a damn thing that any ONE person can do. At least I can't think of any?

Anybody want to prove me wrong?

Macheath

There's a sense in which a lot of these terrorists have already lost. I mean, look at the lives they lead. They have to lie and skulk around in the shadows. They have to cook up and then swallow their own mindless propaganda. All that unites them is their own mad anger. They can't vote or run for office without risking capture. Some life.

There's a infinitesimally small chance that some international terrorist will kill or harm you personally. Conversely, there's an almost certain chance that the terrorist who wants to kill you wakes up on a filthy mattress surrounded by cockroaches and rats.

Fuck 'em.

At an individual level, get to know your neighbours, go to local council meetings. Reinforce your civilized society from the ground up. At the very least you'd be guaranteed success fighting those local punks who "terrorize" your elderly neighbours.

roachboy

this "war on terror" nonsense has certainly worked out well in russia over teh past 48 hours.
read the line putin is arguing, if you haven't heard it already.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3627030.stm

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

tropple

MOSCOW: Furious relatives of Russian school hostages on Saturday lynched one of the terrorists involved in the three-day bloody siege in Beslan in southern Russia.
Twenty six terrorists were killed by security forces in a gunbattle while three were detained. Another terrorist, while being taken to a police station, was snatched away by relatives of the hostages and lynched, Federal Security Board chief in North Ossetia Valery Andreyev said.
Over 30 terrorists of various nationalities were involved in the siege, Andreyev was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS .
"We can say with confidence that there were more than 30 bandits. Russian as well as foreign citizens. They were well trained and the casualties could have been much higher (if the security forces had not stepped in)," Andreyev said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...how/839306.cms

Well, this is a wonderful start at fighting terror!

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+++++++++++Boom!

raven12

I am not sure that there is much a common citizen can do to stop terrorism, if anything. It is all in the hands of the FBI, CIA, etc.

doncalypso

The way I see it, terrorism can happen anywhere and isn't limited to Islamic fundamentalist as the US media would like to portray it. For cryin' out loud, Timothy McVeigh was a home-grown All-American terrorist but yet nobody mentions his name when they talk about terrorism.

As far as I'm concerned, the Neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan, and any other militias in the US that are gearing up for an "inevitable war" against the federal government and the United Nations are terrorist groups but yet nothing is being done about them. Honestly, as long as Americans see terrorism as an outside threat it'll still be a problem. If terrorism is to stop then every nation on this planet should start doing some cleaning in their own proverbial backyards and stop the domestic terrorist groups before trying to go abroad and stop terrorists in other countries.

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Doncalypso... the one and only Haitian Sensation

tropple

Really? And as soon as it stops being an outside threat, that's how it will be treated.

Home-grown groups are pretty much ineffectual due to investigative infiltration. Do a search on it. You'll find enough articles to make you grin.

The primary domestic threats are twos and threes of freaking whackos who think they have the solution.


At this time, the threat is the one noted in the article:




Muslims' painful truth The main perpetrators of terrorism are Muslims, says leading Arab writer

CAIRO

IMAGES of dead, wounded and traumatised Russian children being carried from the scene of a school siege horrified Middle-Eastern Muslims, prompting forthright self-criticism yesterday.


Images of terrified kids hurt during the crisis have sparked a flood of outrage at the terrorists' inhumanity, not least from the Muslim world. -- AFP

It also sparked fresh concerns about an international backlash against Islam and its followers.

Arab leaders, Muslim clerics and parents across the Middle East denounced the school siege that left more than 320 people dead, many of them children, as unjustifiable.

Some warned that such actions damage Islam's image more than all its enemies could hope for. Even some supporters of Islamic militancy condemned it, though at least one insisted Muslims were not behind it.
'Holy warriors' from the Middle East have long supported fellow Muslims fighting in Chechnya, and Russian officials said nine or 10 Arabs were among militants killed when commandos stormed the Beslan school in southern Russia on Friday to end a siege that began on Wednesday by rebels demanding Chechen independence.

Middle East security officials, speaking on condition of anony- mity, said it was too early to know the nationalities of the Arabs among the dead militants. However, a prominent Arab journalist wrote that Muslims must acknowledge the painful fact that Muslims are the main perpetrators of terrorism.

'Our terrorist sons are an end-product of our corrupted culture,' Mr Abdulrahman Al-Rashed, general manager of Al-Arabiya television, wrote in his daily column published in the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.
It ran under the headline, The Painful Truth: All the World Terrorists are Muslims!

Mr Rashed ran through a list of recent attacks by Islamic extremist groups - in Russia, Iraq, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen - many of which are influenced by the ideology of Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born leader of Al-Qaeda terror network.

'Most perpetrators of suicide operations in buses, schools and residential buildings around the world for the past 10 years have been Muslims,' he wrote.

Muslims will be unable to cleanse their image unless 'we admit the scandalous facts', rather than offer condemnations or justifications.
'The picture is humiliating, painful and harsh for all of us,' he said.
Arab TV stations repeatedly aired footage of terrified young survivors being carried from the school siege scene, while pictures of dead and wounded children ran on the front pages of Saturday's Arab newspapers.

Mr Ahmed Bahgat, an Egyptian Islamist, wrote in his column in Egypt's leading pro-government newspaper Al-Ahram that the images 'showed Muslims as monsters who are fed by the blood of children and the pain of their families'.
'If all the enemies of Islam united together and decided to harm it... they wouldn't have ruined and harmed its image as much as the sons of Islam have done by their stupidity, miscalculations and misunderstanding of the nature of this age,' Mr Bahgat wrote.

Other Islamists were more cautious in their criticism.
Mohammed Mahdi Akef, leader of Egypt's largest Islamic group, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, said the siege did not fit the Islamic concept of jihad, or holy war, but took care not to characterise it as terrorism.

'What happened...is not jihad because our Islam obligates us to respect the souls of human beings,' he said. 'Real jihad should target occupiers of our lands only like the Palestinian and Iraqi resistance.'

Mr Ali Abdullah, an Islamic scholar in Bahrain who follows the ultra-conservative Salafi stream of Islam, condemned the school attack as 'un-Islamic' but insisted Muslims were not behind it.

'I have no doubt in my mind that this is the work of the Israelis who want to tarnish the image of Muslims and are working alongside Russians who have their own agenda against the Muslims in Chechnya,' said Mr Abdullah, reviving an old conspiracy theory altered to fit any situation.

Salafism and its similarly conservative kin, Wahhabism, which is widely observed in Saudi Arabia, are accused by critics of fostering extremism.
Some contributors to Islamic websites known for their extremist content praised the separatists and predicted that the Islamic fighters across Egypt would avenge the killings of Muslims elsewhere.

Heads of state from around the region condemned the attack. It struck a chord with parents, including Jordan's King Abdullah II, who denounced it on state-run television.

'As a father, I can tell you that all the fathers and mothers in Jordan pray humbly to God to stand by their counterparts in Russia in their grief,' said the king, whose wife is expecting their fourth child.

Mr Mohammed Saleh Ebrahim, a 31-year-old Bahraini, described the hostage-takers as 'worse than animals'.

'It's because of these people Muslims and Arabs are getting a bad name around the world,' he said. -- AP


'If all the enemies of Islam united together and decided to harm it...they wouldn't have ruined and harmed its image as much as the sons of Islam have done by their stupidity, miscalculations and misunderstanding of the nature of this age.'
- MR AHMED BAHGAT, an Egyptian Islamist

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/new...271049,00.html

__________________
+++++++++++Boom!

powerclown

(The #1 rule to recovery is to admit you have a problem.)

And this is a good start: 'Innocent religion is now a message of hate'

diesle

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!

roachboy

this cavafy poem sums up the "terrorist" thing better than i could--i agree with what has been said earlier about the shifting character of the term. but this sums up the function:

Waiting for the Barbarians

What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?

The barbarians are to arrive today.

Why such inaction in the Senate?
Why do the Senators sit and pass no laws?

Because the barbarians are to arrive today.
What laws can the Senators pass any more?
When the barbarians come they will make the laws.

Why did our emperor wake up so early,
and sits at the greatest gate of the city,
on the throne, solemn, wearing the crown?

Because the barbarians are to arrive today.
And the emperor waits to receive
their chief. Indeed he has prepared
to give him a scroll. Therein he inscribed
many titles and names of honor.

Why have our two consuls and the praetors come out
today in their red, embroidered togas;
why do they wear amethyst-studded bracelets,
and rings with brilliant, glittering emeralds;
why are they carrying costly canes today,
wonderfully carved with silver and gold?

Because the barbarians are to arrive today,
and such things dazzle the barbarians.

Why don't the worthy orators come as always
to make their speeches, to have their say?

Because the barbarians are to arrive today;
and they get bored with eloquence and orations.

Why all of a sudden this unrest
and confusion. (How solemn the faces have become).
Why are the streets and squares clearing quickly,
and all return to their homes, so deep in thought?

Because night is here but the barbarians have not come.
And some people arrived from the borders,
and said that there are no longer any barbarians.

And now what shall become of us without any barbarians?
Those people were some kind of solution.


source: http://users.hol.gr/~barbanis/cavafy/

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

powerclown

rb, i take it your not a betting man?