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I'm assuming this is sarcastic, but unfortunately, a lot of people will believe it to be true. "Bomb the #### out of 'em," as though that won't just stoke the fire.
Unfortunately, that won't happen in our lifetime. It will take quite a few more generations or even centuries before that stupidity is evolved out of society.
"I'll give you citizenship, free healthcare and education on the backs of the populous if you say you're sorry and it sort of seems like you mean it. Really, I just need you guys to be quiet until early November, because you're really killing my 'The banks are public enemy #1' vibe." - Bernie?
I'm guessing you've never heard of Timothy McVeigh. He blew up a federal building in 1995 because he was pissed at how the government handled the siege at Waco. It was the most deadly act of terrorism up to that point in the U.S., and is the most significant act of domestic terrorism in the U.S. to date.
one big difference tho. McVeigh was not a movement by thousands of fanatics. Can we stop idiots from doing damage or killing? Probably not. Can we stop a sub division of a large group of people from doing the same? Only if the majority of those people stop it themselves. All we can do is react. This is not an social or economic movement. This is a warped view of a religion that professes itself to be a religion of peace. Unfortunately, besides them saying it, there is little evidence to prove it.
But the question is "is there any way to stop terrorism". My point was that acts of terrorism are not limited to Muslim extremists. Acts of terrorism have been around for a long time, and are not confined to any subset of the populace that can be targeted.
Probably no way to stop it. I am in the minority but the best solution means to "make it hurt". That means not giving these people the freedom to come and go as they wish around the globe. It's the old "reap what you sow" philosophy....
This is comforting thing to believe, but I don't see a shred of evidence to support it. On the contrary, practically all ME governments are authoritarian. A few -- like Saudi Arabia -- are like something straight out the 11th century. When people in that region get ticked off and overthrow one autocratic government, they usually just replace it with something even more oppressive. Heck, the US invested its own blood and treasure to overthrow the Baath government and give Iraqis the chance to have a government more like ours. What did they do? They dropped everything and started slaughtering their neighbors. I'm very firmly convinced that the middle east isn't just a desert version of Vermont that only needs a little sprinkling of democracy for freedom to bloom. People who assume that most people in the middle east secretly share western values are just being naive and/or ethnocentric.
I akin it along the lines of a family living in/amongst drug dealers in inner cities or even ( maybe a more appropriate analogy) innocent people who looked the other way during heavy IRA and anti-IRA activity in Ireland. If one has a choice between siding with an outside entitiy that, depending on their whim, might or might not be there next week, or ignoring the horrific behavior of the person living next door to you....because you KNOW they'll be there next week....I imagine most people will side with the latter...particularly, in this case, when there is significant apprehension in regards to the outside entitiy (be it thru propganda or generational experiences).
That's one hypothesis. But if there was really a clear majority of folks who didn't want their governments to be like this, you'd expect that they would have gotten their way in at least one country, someplace, at some point in time. That never happens.
I disagree with this. If you cut the head off the snake, it will die.
This is a great point.
