Israeli Contempt for the UN: A Cause for War

Who is there to negotiate with? This is not a conventional war. Each civilian can in a second turn into an independant terrorist. We must win the hearts of the arab people, not beat them into submission. That was the mistake in Vietnam, to assume that just because they're some backward piss poor country that we can defeat them. Or rather, we can defeat them; but at an unacceptable cost.

Many people like to portray the arabs and their leaders as a new Nazi Germany to smother or perhaps a new Soviet Empire. In truth, the terrorists are evil, but nothing like the two former enemies of the USA. The former were centralized states, a state can be a destroyed (as we have seen recently in Iraq and Afganistan). But the terrorists have no state. They live in Germany, France as well as the muslim countries, indistinguishable from ordinary people. It is like a Grand Guerilla War. Unless you plan on slaughtering every arab in the world, we cannot win.

I think the fence was the right move. Perhaps not the way was implemented, taking arab land, but the principle, of solving the problem by cutting themselves off from the arabs surrounding the place, is sound. The refugee problem of the palestinians (the only real problem) is a temporary one, if the flow of new refugees can be stopped (hence if the possibilty of fighting is stopped).

"Durch Nacht und Blut das Licht"

Terrorist attacks require planning and training. It has to happen in "some" country. Deny them this base and terrorism is crippled. When the schools in the Arab nations teach to hate Americans and Jews, how do you propose to win them over? They graduate from school with hate and there are no jobs over there, it is a almost impossible task to turn them.

"Terrorist attacks require planning and training. It has to happen in "some" country."
The terrorists of the greatest terrorist attack ever, 9/11, only had training for flying a plane and knowing how to wield a knife.
The second is trivial, the first was learnt in the USA.

The simple fact is, being an amateur terrorist is to be a competent terrorist.

This is a new type of war. It has not yet trully begun in my opinion. The deaths of 9/11, in absolute terms, are minute compared to what was faced in the last 2 great conflicts, WW2 and the Cold War. Just as the Cold War was a new type of war (due to nuclear weapons), it required new ways of fighting. Cool-headed statesmen like Harry Truman understood this. The Soviets could not be beaten by a Hot War, even though that had worked against the Nazis, and even though many Americans were eager to challenge the Soviet Empire.

The War on Terror is also a new type of war. We can win it in two ways, we can either kill every muslim on earth, or we can westernize them. The middle east is a religious version of sub-saharan africa. The solution is the same as the one used against the Germans : make them rich.

We can still do this in Iraq, despite the instability. For the war in Iraq to have any meaning, the place needs a Marshall Plan, it needs to have money pumped into. As was done in South Korea. Only then can there be democracy.

If we create democratic institutions and leave, Iraq will be poor and just like Weimar Germany, Democratic Japan or Italy it will flounder.

The same holds true in Palestine, the Israelis won 4 wars against the Arab States. And yet there is no peace. We could win a thousand more and there will be no peace, if the arab nations do not know security, freedom and wealth.

"Durch Nacht und Blut das Licht"

See what I mean, it takes training (learning how to fly, similated take over of planes with box cutters which Iraq had fusilages that terrorist used to practice) and planning (numerous meetings throughout the world for two years prior to 9/11. I am glad you have made my point. Deny them these bases.

They learned how to fly in the US.

I'm not sure how you want to deny them their bases... Nuke Florida?

"Durch Nacht und Blut das Licht"