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What? The way to fight terrorism is to provide an environment where people not want to be terrorists. Terrorism requires no state sponsored infrastructure. Bom

What? The way to fight terrorism is to provide an environment where people not want to be terrorists. Terrorism requires no state sponsored infrastructure. Bombing places to hell doesn't stop the spread of hopelessness, of desperation, of taking comfort in extremism. Note: Using the "anti-establishment guerrilla fighters" definition of terrorism, not "causing terror". That's a whole other bag of bagels.

javert 15y ago
The way to fight terrorism is to provide an environment where people not want to be terrorists. That's a strategy of altruism and failure.
- ldargin 15y ago
  The Arab Spring has probably done more to fight terrorism than any war.
  - ryanhuff 15y ago
    Don't you think its a bit early for such a claim? Who knows where Libya and Egypt will be in 5-10 years from now?
wisty 15y ago
There's no single answer. In Palestine, most of the terrorists (but maybe not the leaders) are alturists. Israel has captured quite a few, and profiled them - http://utexas.academia.edu/AmiPedahzur/Papers/209890/Altruism_and_Fatalism_The_Characteristics_of_Palestinian_Suicide_Terrorists http://utexas.academia.edu/AmiPedahzur/Papers/209890/Altruis.... The same may have been true of the IRA, and it may be true of the Tamil Tigers. People only blow themselves up when they believe they are fighting against evil oppressors. In these cases, you are right - you need to address the root cause. In the case of 911, the terrorists themselves may have been altruistic, but they were given support by Afghanistan (and maybe a few Saudis, but we need their oil). Knocking out states which support terrorism (which the US can do quite easily) may be an effective way to stop state-sponsored terrorism. In any case, it's partly the result of peer pressure. If everyone in a community sees terrorism as a good thing, a few people in that community will become terrorists. Threatening states forces them to fight this attitude. In other cases, there is no state to threaten.

javert 15y ago

The way to fight terrorism is to provide an environment where people not want to be terrorists. That's a strategy of altruism and failure.

ldargin 15y ago
The Arab Spring has probably done more to fight terrorism than any war.
- ryanhuff 15y ago
  Don't you think its a bit early for such a claim? Who knows where Libya and Egypt will be in 5-10 years from now?

wisty 15y ago

There's no single answer. In Palestine, most of the terrorists (but maybe not the leaders) are alturists. Israel has captured quite a few, and profiled them - http://utexas.academia.edu/AmiPedahzur/Papers/209890/Altruism_and_Fatalism_The_Characteristics_of_Palestinian_Suicide_Terrorists http://utexas.academia.edu/AmiPedahzur/Papers/209890/Altruis.... The same may have been true of the IRA, and it may be true of the Tamil Tigers. People only blow themselves up when they believe they are fighting against evil oppressors. In these cases, you are right - you need to address the root cause. In the case of 911, the terrorists themselves may have been altruistic, but they were given support by Afghanistan (and maybe a few Saudis, but we need their oil). Knocking out states which support terrorism (which the US can do quite easily) may be an effective way to stop state-sponsored terrorism. In any case, it's partly the result of peer pressure. If everyone in a community sees terrorism as a good thing, a few people in that community will become terrorists. Threatening states forces them to fight this attitude. In other cases, there is no state to threaten.