Counter-terrorism revisited

[atommom]

To mark the first anniversary of the spectacular terrorist strikes in Madrid by jihadi terrorists with definite sympathy for al-Qaeda, even if not satisfactorily proven links to it, the city is hosting what has been projected as an international summit on democracy, terrorism and security from this Tuesday to Thursday to discuss, inter alia, the causes and the underlying factors of terrorism, methods of confronting it and the democratic responses available for confronting it.
<snip>

In its "war against terrorism", the US is following a three-pronged operational strategy based on strengthened physical security to deny major successes to the terrorists, whether in the US itself or elsewhere; a high level of military pressure with no holds barred on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq in order to bring about a non-reversible decimation of the rank and file of the terrorists; and third, to keep up its hunt for bin Laden and al-Zarqawi.

An apparent premise underlying the US strategy, which may or may not be proved correct, is that the capture or physical elimination of these two leaders would accelerate the achievement of the other two objectives. Many, including this writer, do not subscribe to this view. They hold that the elimination from leadership of these two may cause a temporary setback to the terrorists, but not an irreversible one. Arab anger over the US-led occupation of Iraq would continue to fuel jihadi terrorism, definitely in the Arab world and, most probably, in the rest of the world too, even in the absence of these leaders.
<snip>

The root cause of the continuing jihadi terrorism is no longer just any territorial issue, such as an independent Palestine, but it is the widely perceived humiliation of the Muslims in general and the Arabs in particular by the US-led coalition in the name of the "war against terrorism". The counter-terrorism techniques followed by the US, with its heavy reliance on the air force and heavy armor, which have been killing more civilians than terrorists, have become the real root cause of terrorism, relegating Palestine and other issues to the background.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GC08Aa01.html

[merwin]

1. We have become the terrorists.

[dxstone]

2. what merwin said!

and unfortunately, what goes around may just come back around to bite us on the ass...
Then again, the Pentagon always has reassuring words to offer:


http://www.presidentevilonline.com/stoopid.html

D X Stone
http://www.presidentevilonline.com
"I LOVE horror movies, man... I just don't want to LIVE in one."