The United States can defeat al-Qaida if it relies less on force and more on policing and intelligence to root out the terror group's leaders, a new study contends.

"Keep in mind that terrorist groups are not eradicated overnight," said the study by the federally funded Rand research center, an organization that counsels the Pentagon.

Its report said that the use of military force by the United States or other countries should be reserved for quelling large, well-armed and well-organized insurgencies, and that American officials should stop using the term "war on terror" and replace it with "counterterrorism."

"Terrorists should be perceived and described as criminals, not holy warriors, and our analysis suggests there is no battlefield solution to terrorism," said Seth Jones, the lead author of the study and a Rand political scientist.

"The United States has the necessary instruments to defeat al-Qaida, it just needs to shift its strategy," Jones said.

Nearly every ally, including Britain and Australia, has stopped using "war on terror" to describe strategy against the group headed by Osama bin Laden and considered responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 suicide attacks at the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.

Based on an analysis of 648 terrorist groups that existed between 1968 and 2006, the report concluded that a transition to the political process is the most common way such groups end. But the process, found in 43 percent cases examined, is unlikely with al-Qaida, which has a broad, sweeping agenda, the report said.

The second most common way that terrorist groups end, seen in about 40 percent of the cases, is through police and intelligence services apprehending or killing key leaders, Jones said. Police are particularly effective because their permanent presence in cities helps them gather information, he said.

By contrast, the report said, military force was effective in only 7 percent of the cases.

Talking Points Memo | Study questions US strategy against al-Qaida

I see that "second most common way", and then I'm reminded of George Bush who stated he wasn't that concerned over the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.
If a Democrat had said that, Republicans would be howling "traitor!"


I don't know of anybody who is "against" fighting terrorism.
The issue is fighting terrorism SENSIBLY.

Previous studies have shown that the threat from terrorism actually INCREASED due to Iraq. Yet people don't want to seem to listen.
Isn't it about time we started fighting terrorism sensibly?

Are you talking about using tactics like targetting their leaders, eliminating their weapons, turning the civilian populace against them???

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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

God is a conservative -

Ecclesiastes 10:2--"A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left."

You have to admit he has a point.

Most of our current efforts are focused around more of "policing" style of dealing with the terrorists. Here's a few examples:

Multi-National Force - Iraq - Coalition forces detain 30 suspected AQI terrorists, remove AQI hideout (Baghdad)
Multi-National Force - Iraq - More than 50 suspected AQI detained, 4 AQI killed during search operation in Ninewah
Multi-National Force - Iraq - More than 500 reconcile in Tikrit, ad Dwar
http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?op...473&Itemid=128

Mind you, this is just the last couple of days and is a small sampling of what we're doing. But, the ability to do this was built on the demonstration of our ability to "kick ass and take names" when needed. When the Iraqi people saw that we were there to make sure that they weren't going to get thrown under the bus, they started working with us. This was accomplished by field commanders, not politicos, not Generals, but by Captains, Lieutenants and Sargeants. Yes, the early part of the battle for Iraq was not handled in the best fashion, but we learned from our mistakes and have moved on. The lessons learned in Iraq are now being applied in Aghanistan and are bearing fruit, albeit at a mush slower rate due to some substantial cultural differences.

I do think that we need to be carrying out more actions like Operation Horn of Africa and building trust in the more vulnerable populations before the terrorists have a chance to "poison these wells". But, this effort has to be coupled with a strong knowledge by both our enemies and our present and potential allies of our ability and willingness to engage the enemy in miltary fashion.

__________________
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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

God is a conservative -

Ecclesiastes 10:2--"A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left."

Maybe these guys could help

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Our military INVADES a foreign country, and you want to credit our current MILITARY actions as simply "policing", ignoring the fact that they are still doing PRECISELY what the article talked about regarding "military force".

I guess this is what you get when you allow people to call a war as just a "police action"...
Or is it actually a "WAR on terror"?

I guess it just depends on what issue you're trying to avoid, eh?

Same old crap...

We did a GOOD thing in Iraq and becuase it was done while a Republican President was in leadership and showed that the whole idea that using violence to stop violent men actually works, while using diplomacy failed, you folks on the left just can't seem to accept that. You want a nice sterile. microwave solution, where the bad guys just magically decide to give up the power and authority they acquired over the bodies of everyone who got thier way. You want a place where people just suddenly give up centuries of conflict just because we said "Pretty please." Wake up!! Your protests mean nothing to the millions of people living in freedom for the first time in thier lives and your screwed up concepts of how to stop evil people from perpetuating thier evil mean nothing to those people. They fought thier way to the top and they'll only leave if forced to or have it proven to them that they will die if they continue. We're not fighting reasonable people, we're fighting power-hungry, amoral criminals who will stop at nothing to get what they want. They will slaughter children, they will torture whole families, they will use the most horrific weapons available to create fear, they are EVIL. You can either ignore them (the liberal way) or fight them (the conservative way).

__________________
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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

God is a conservative -

Ecclesiastes 10:2--"A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left."

I think you meant to put that as the title of your post...


"diplomacy failed"?
Diplomacy WAS ACTUALLY WORKING before we invaded Iraq.
The U.N. inspectors were getting MORE access, and still finding nothing.

Furthermore, can you explain to me WHY if it was such a "good thing", did the Republicans NOT do this during the Iraq - Kuwait war???
WHY did Cheney EXPLICITLY EXPLAIN the reasons for NOT doing what we did in this decade???
And the funny part is that Cheney's reasons for the 90's WERE EXACTLY WHAT CAME TRUE in this decade...
But our White House LIED in claiming that the war would pay for itself, and would be over in months, and ...........

The PRIOR Republican President was faced with a similar decision, and I SUPPORTED HIS decision when HE made it.
This pretense that this is "partisan" on my part is just b.s. to ignore the REAL issues at hand.


And then you run firmly into strawman territory.
I whole-heartedly SUPPORT the war in Afghanistan. There was a recent statistic stating that our Afghanistan soldier body count had amassed to the amount that is lost in Iraq.

And respecting the soldier's sacrifices, Afghanistan IS WORTH IT.
War is not "sterile". I get that.
This has NOTHING to do with "sterile", so peddle your strawman somewhere else.

The real reason you can't argue this subject without resorting to these tactics is because you can't talk about the BIG picture here...

And in looking back, I can't help but notice you have completely devolved away from the POINT OF THIS THREAD.
I point out that you labelling our "military force" as "policing" is still MILITARY ACTION (remember the study?), and you drop any pretense of discussing the point of this thread...


And in the end, the American people will have their say as well.
It's one of the reasons why Democrat power has REPLACED majority Republican power in Congress.
It's one of the reasons why Bush's "popularity" rating is more of a "poopularity" rating these days.
As long as people like you refuse to learn, you'll continue to lose!

Don't know why they didn't show up the first time.
What I meant to say was send in these guys plus the dame in the first picture, and you can wrap the whole thing up in time for tea and the cricket match!

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Frugal tip: To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.

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Salty's Blog

saltwn,
Your post reminded me of the following I had seen about a year ago...

Special Bulletin from the Pentagon

The Pentagon announced today the formation of a new 500-man elite
fighting unit called the United States Redneck Special Forces. These
Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma,
Tennessee and Texas boys will be dropped off into Iraq and have been
given only the following facts about terrorists:

1. The season opened today.
2. There is no limit.
3 They taste just like chicken.
4. They don't like beer, pickups, country music or Jesus.
5. They are DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for the death of Dale Earnhardt.

We expect the problem in Iraq to be over by Friday.