American cannot stop terrorism with Military

Think about the philosophy and theory about how we might win a war on terrorism. Anyone who has studied history knows that the American military cannot win the hearts and minds of the people in whose country they are fighting. In Vietnam, in Iraq and in Afghanistan, the general population suffers tremendously under the heavy weapons of war brought in by the US military. Henry Kissinger recently estimated that approximately 1 million Iraqis have died after almost 6 years of fighting. There are something like 4 million Iraqi refugees who have lost their homes or have fled for another country for safety…all this out of a country of 27 million people. This country, indeed the entire Muslim world is war weary, and the target of their unhappiness is the US from whence come the bullets and big bombs.

Now you say, “what about the terrorists?” The official estimate is al Qaeda has approximately 3000 troops in Iraq. An National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) has clearly stated that the war on Iraq has created more terrorists than we have killed. You have to be a blind fool to think that we are doing great things in Iraq and Afghanistan – we are making enemies of people who used to like us! And while you hold up the holy grail of “bringing democracy to the Middle East” as our greatest mission of the war, most of the people in these countries war-torn would be happy with a powerful dictator that could bring peace to their nation. When bullets are killing your family, the last thing you think about is who you will vote for in the next election.

But things are not hopeless. There is more than one way to stop a terrorist. For example, look at the situation in a few other Muslim countries. Since the series of serious bombings in Indonesia and Malaysia, the governments in these countries have tracked down and cleaned up the terrorist cells associated with al Qaeda. Saudi Arabia also has clamped down on terrorists operating in that country. Europe, particularly Britain has used internal security personnel to stop terrorist actions before they can happen… so has the US for that matter. Pakistan is trying hard to get rid of the terrorists operating in their country, despite a very unstable government.

So what is the lesson here? To me the answer cries out because it is so obvious: Muslim countries do not want terrorists in their countries – and they know best where rebels are hiding and how to chase them down. If the US had a policy of helping the local government of these Muslim countries get rid of terrorists, the locals would be happy to eliminate a great deal of the global terrorist threat in a short time.

Can you imagine what it must be like living in Iraq? The US comes charging in to save them from Saddam Hussein, which we do. Then the Iraqi asks, “What else do you want now?” And we say we want to form a stable government who is friendly to the US and sell us oil. Then the Iraqi asks, “What else do you want now?” We want that government to be a democracy, because that is what you Muslims will really like it best. Then the frustrated Iraqi asks, “Ok, what else do you want now?” We want US government bases all over Iraq so that we can battle people like your dangerous neighbors… and by the way, that war might last 100 years!!

And anyone wonders why anyone thinks maybe it is time to bring home the troops?