Posted on May 25, 2015
When will we realize victory in the War on Terror?
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How and when will we realize the point of victory in the War on Terror? Will it be lasting? What will it look like? Is it possible? Is it likely? What will be the final cost of victory over terror?
War on Terror
Foreign Policy
Warfare
Ethics
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 27
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Simply put, how does one win a war against ideology?
Wars on Drugs, Wars on Poverty, Wars on Terrors make great soundbites, but how can they be accomplished? Or accomplished via the current metrics (at least).
Wars on Drugs, Wars on Poverty, Wars on Terrors make great soundbites, but how can they be accomplished? Or accomplished via the current metrics (at least).
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LTC Yinon Weiss
Terrorism is not really an ideology. It is a tactic use in support of an ideology. Declaring a war against a tactic is possibly even worse and more futile than declaring a war against an ideology.
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Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
LTC Yinon Weiss I was thinking "Terror" as opposed to Terrorism, but I think we are on the same page. These "Conceptual" Wars are futile as you say.
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SSG Kevin McCulley
The truth is that we haven't really been doing these things all the way. When you fight a war, you have to conquer. Anything else is a delaying action for another later war. War is a nasty, bloody, horrible thing. What must come afterwords to the defeated is equally distasteful. They must be broken of a desire to make war again. If you can not stomach the second part, never engage in the first.
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This may be a news flash for some people, but US military stopped fighting a "War on Terror" several years ago. The term is not used by any politicians in charge, and it's not used in any military planning or operations. It is simply no longer a relevant term in military operations... which is a positive change, since I agree with many others here that declaring a war against a tactic is not an effective way to win. It would be similar to declaring a war on ambushes. How can you win a war against a tactic?
"We must define our effort not as a boundless 'Global War on Terror', but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America." - President Obama
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/05/23/obama-global-war-on-terror-is-over
"We must define our effort not as a boundless 'Global War on Terror', but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America." - President Obama
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/05/23/obama-global-war-on-terror-is-over
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1LT William Clardy
I'd be less worried if somebody on Pennsylvania Avenue or Capitol Hill could manage to at least fulfill the first 5 words of that quote with some consistency, LTC Yinon Weiss.
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Apparently, never ... every gain we make we just give away. To be perfectly honest, the "war on terror" is starting to look a lot like the "war on drugs" ...
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SGT Jeremiah B.
Undecided, GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad . The question really revolves around whether any gains we made were real. I'm not convinced they were. The problems that led to those losses weren't fixable in any realistic timeline and the winds were turning against us again with regards to the Iraqi people.
How exactly does one "gain" against unattainable objectives?
How exactly does one "gain" against unattainable objectives?
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PO3 Jonathan Cooper
GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad I think we all know how well that war on drugs has worked out...
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Never. The idea itself of winning a war against st an ideology is flawed and stupid. We need to recoup, rethink, and redeploy forces with an objective that actually makes sense and is at least theoretically possible.
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LCDR (Join to see)
I honestly don't believe that or anything g else resembling force can work. The only way to "win" is to change their culture's view of us over a long period of time. There is no number of bullets or shells that can kill an idea; you have to gently persuade them to think otherwise. Only the natural inhabitants of that corner of the world can ever win the ongoing battle against the terrorism of radical ideologies. The sooner we all realize that and keep ourselves away from there, the better.
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LCDR (Join to see)
Nazism was a war that was won by defeating a country's military might. If you think there is even the slightest parallel between the two, you are blind and naïve. We "fought" a Cold War against a country with military might similar to our own, who had nuclear weapons, and our collective standstill from mutually-assured-destruction allowed us to out-spend them with the force of our superior economy until they collapsed from trying to keep up; if you think that one is a parallel in any way, you're absurdly off-base. There is zero parallel between either of those events and the War On Terror. The notion that you would even submit those as possibilities means you're either trying very hard to be argumentative, or you lack a grasp of history.
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1LT William Clardy
SSG Kevin McCulley, no we didn't.
Fascism was still very much alive and doing well in Europe at least into the 1980s, while Franco was still alive and ruling Spain.
Fascism was still very much alive and doing well in Europe at least into the 1980s, while Franco was still alive and ruling Spain.
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SSG Kevin McCulley
*sigh* Here we go again. When used as a capitalized proper noun Fascism and Nazism refer specifically to the Italian and German WWII varieties. We fought a cold war against MULTIPLE countries who held the communist ideology, chief among them Russia. Perhaps you haven't heard the term Communist Bloc before? Warsaw Pact? The cold war was a capitalism/communism ideological one.
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Never! Terrorism is not a Country, It is a methodology used by all to include armed forces "Shock and Awe". It is a methodology that preys on Fear. It is used my Terrorist Organizations, Militarys it is used by Individuals. Calling it a War on Terror, might as well call it a War on Scratching My Ass.
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1LT William Clardy
Not quite, PO1 William "Chip" Nagel. Terror is a state of mind, and we will never defeat while still fearing every shadow.
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Honestly, I can't see how we can win. We are fighting zealots. That type of ideology can't be broken. We can win battles against them, but I don't believe that we can ever win that war.
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We can never win a War on Terror while we still allow our fears to justify the surrender of our liberties and responsibilities as citizens, CH (MAJ) William Beaver.
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SGT (Join to see)
1LT William Clardy, you are spot on Sir. War on terror or war for anything cannot be won by giving in and giving away our liberties.
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As long as men hold onto the ideology that one group of men is superior whether it would be genetic, religious, nationality there will always be terrorism. 2000 years ago Romans called them Zealots, a few hundred years ago India called them Thuggee (origin of thug), in America manifest destiny led Native Americans to commit acts of "terror" that war took from 1500 to about 1885 for the U.S. To finally eradicate terrorism from the America. Will there ever be a real victory...I don't believe there will be, however by being vigilant and relentless we can suppress it. I recommend we have a trial for them and if found guilty sentence terrorist to death instead of conducting prisoner exchanges.
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