How can you fight terrorism?

YOU CAN NEVER DESTROY TERRORISM

terrorism is the way people operate when they have a problem with a government and don't have the nuts to stand up and make a firm challenge, army against army. they attack in secret, under cover. they attack targets that will get the attention of the party they oppose, but not the party itself. they kill innocent people to get the governing body to change policy. terrorism is the new activism. only, they would never light themselves on fire as the buddhist monks did, it would hurt too much. these guys are soft, they'd rather kill someone else, it's easier, and as long as you can convince yourself that they were evil or part of the evil machine, the hurt for the fact you just killed a bunch of people is easier to let go of. if we could just keep one of them alive and psycho-analyze him, i'm sure we'd find some interesting things, some very interesting depths of stupidity, of cultism, of ideological inconsistencies, but no good, concrete explanations for the acts of terrorism they've committed. i bet they could be broken down, to crying, when they are made to realize what they've done. just my .02.

Originally posted by faddinglight
How can you fight terrorism, its not an entity, its not a thing, you really can't bomb it, this fact makes the war unjust. Looking for terrorism is like looking for weather in a bucket of water, or like looking for "electicity" in a split wire, you won't find it.

If they do want to stop terrorism weapons need to be confiscated within the hot spots, there should be a blockade preventing ammunition from getting into the wrong hands.

But that opens to context to broad a view, you would also be seizing things and rights of those who are in the area but dont have a view on the issue at all they just want to be left alone but the terror element squatted on their land and said look we aint leaving , so in your justification for a means of attack also punishes the innocent.

You cant destroy terrorism, by fighting terrorism you are fighting YOUR terrorists, and by fighting YOUR terrorists you are oppressing your enemies. Remember that from their point of view they are not the terrorists YOU are. Just as we see 9/11 (which clearly is) as an act of terrorism.

In my mind a large portion (not all) of 'Terrorism' is revenge; people do not simply attack for no reason. You have to look at why American's in particular get targeted in terror attacks and what America has perpetrated in its recent history that other countries have not.

Now I am not saying that other countries have not committed similar acts as the ones on the list below, but the US is by far one of the largest perpetrators of them in the last 50 or so years.

I would suggest the following list as an example:

Wars (both public and private)
Political incursions in foreign countries (which can create altering effects on its civilians depending on who's in power)
Covert military strikes and bombing raids.
Industrial and economic pressure on foreign countries.
Sanctions imposed through the UN with major US backing.
Etc.

All of these things can incite anger, violence, death and destruction; most of which we ourselves would not see. As I have stated in previous threads 'revenge can wait a lifetime', so how do we know that 'Terrorist acts' are not simply revenge attacks for events that the target country committed against them years or even decades earlier? Maybe even under different governments?

The way I would say that we could possibly cut back on terrorist acts is to not be the catalyst for such events in the first place, by not committing some of the events that I stated above. However I do not think the US could stop now even if it wanted to, with Iraq and Afghanistan being prime examples of starting the process over again.

To define terrorism you must look at the root cause. Throwing the word terrorism around now only implies individuals blowing themselves up. However this is not the root cause. You must recognize that what we call terrorism is cultural. It is taught to the children that martyrdom guarantees entrance to heaven and financial reward. It has been said kill off those funding terrorism and that will be that. This statement fails to realize the very people our leaders profit from are those funding the terrorism.

Others believe it is just a warped belief in lies such as was pointed out about Iraqi's belieivng they would be raped and tortured by the Americans as did the Japanese during WWII. Propaganda is always used to bolster troops morale to fight however the leaders of such troops never believe the propaganda they use it's a tool.

So you have to ask the question. Why are they blowing themselves up? Why do they hate us? Is it because of some fairy tale belief in something America never did? Is it because they just hate democracy and freedom? These are propaganda tools used by our own government to make the masses 'strong' in maintaining offense.

You see there must first exist a viable REASON for an individual to engage in hostility or to train others to do so. That reason generally is a family member who is killed by a certain military thus creating a leader and followers to fight such military.

You see the average American does not spend time reading but playing video games, watching football, or playing golf. We then like to summarize our opinions on what we see reported on the news and make a judgement in our minds of how things are. In essence the 'mindset' of American thinking towards terrorism is one of confusion and allegation based on fantasy. When the WTC was hit, certainly the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan were not responsible for the deaths, however they are a platform to pay for it. It was said that the training camps and leaders were responsible for funding those who made such attacks. Well so does the Saudi family of which the Bush family has made billions of dollars from.

Also we made the camps in Afghanistan and could've taken them out anytine we wanted to over the last 30 years. The camps and the leaders were simply a platform and used as a tool for certain agendas on the part of the white house - as was Sadaam.

So the belief of terrorism birthing from hatred towards the idea of democracy is a failure to understand that atrocities were made against those committing the acts of terror out of revenge. Much of what the CIA has done throughout the years is classified. Even the national security directives allowing the JCOS and the CIA to make war against the soviet union by arming and training guerillas is still classified. Why when the Soviets know exactly what has happened. Certain individuals are still alive and the actions they committed were illegal thats why.

So we see the real cause of terrorism and the root of terrorism are the ILLEGAL ACTIONS performed by certain institutions of which Americans would never have given permission of knowing the scope of such missions and the requirements of killing civilians to justify those missions. Americans of course have no knowledge of this as it is mostly classified and will be until after you die. So Americans cannot make a judgement of what terrorism means becuase they do not understand the root cause they can only believe what they are told by those hiding the root cause or covering it up to save their own arse.

What a fellow had described earlier in this post to have a centralized terrorism center is really a center to monitor all citizens and form a police state. Having failed to understand the root cause of terrorism this is logic in general and is surely what our government would like to enact to close the grip on the drones of society to maintain order. It's not a conspiracy just simple management.

So how do we protect our citizens from terrorism that these institutions have created?

Any rational measure of educating the citizens or getting funding from the patriot act to pay for such education on the part of citizens will never occur. It wil be used only for law enforcement to maintain order. However law enforcement can never be an effective tool for stopping terrorism on a grand scale as we have already scene especially in Israel. It comes down to the people on the planes, trains, and automobiles who will be there when it happens.

To train citizens one needs to understand that this would include all types of training, weapon disarming, knife throwing, tactical shooting, knowledge of explosive devices, disarming and disposal of such, and body manipulation (martial arts) are the basic tenets of giving any citizen the preparation to stop a terrorist from taking over a plane or McDonalds as this neeeds to occur within 7 seconds of the engagement.

Sadly if you wish to learn these things you are required to do so on your own. Going into the military will not train you in such endeavors unless you are involved extensively in SFOD for years but more specialized training is required as terrorist will always seek a loophole. Heck the classes could be run out of the local YMCA with a background check on citizens who do not have felonies or aggregate behavioral problems.

But again this will never happen as terrorism in your mind does not occur from what soemone has done to piss off someone else but is some fanatical movement hellbent on waging war against democracy not some covered up mistake wrought by rich kids and West pointers pushed by corporations to make more bullets, rockets, and oil.

We can fight terrorism through many ways and I for one do not support Bush's//Blair's way of handling the situation.With all the Patriot Act and stuffs.That's monitoring and spying on your citizens.Where's the trust in them?

Anyways,here are the ways fighting terrorism:
1)For those of you who have children(s),educate them as much as possible
2)keep a lookout for news pertaining with the War on Terrorism
3)Talk it out with others to share the fight for terrorism
4)Update yourself with terrorist's movement
5)Join ATS

These are methods we should be fighting terrorism.In our own way.What the government are doing,let them.Moreover,fighting terrorism need not mean we send soldiers to annihilate the terrorists one by one.

It's the little things we as citizens do that'll really change the future our of kids and grandkids.