How to Beat Terrorism: Refused to be Terrorized

[Oneironaut Zero]

Pretty good article on Wired about how the response to the Sept 11th attacks may have hurt, rather than helped, the U.S. (not that it is any major secret. It's just very well-stated, here); and how to keep such things from happening in the future. How to Beat Terrorism: Refuse to Be Terrorized | Danger Room | Wired.com (And here's a bonus, related article from Scientific American: Did the U.S. Overreact to the 9/11 Attacks? Undoubtedly | Cross-Check, Scientific American Blog Network )

[Unelias]

It was well written, yes I am not an American and thus I am not aware all of your internal politics. By knowing them I would be more aware of the current situation there. I am just puzzled that do most of the people accept and view it as a good thing that 20% of its federal budget is put down on military branch? ( People can call it whatever they like, anti-terrorist budget, defence budget and so on, truth is it is just more money for toys of war ). Or are the citizens angried by it but cannot change it? Or do people shout hurray for military might and vote for politicians that want keep it high? Just to compare that our defence budget is 1.4% of our GDP, it feels so.. surrealistic. The sheer military budget of USA is 14 times greater than the whole state budget we have here So many things I don't know and I'd love if someone could share their own thoughts on this.

[Xei]

Yep, and like you say, pretty obvious. The entire concept of a colour-coded terror scale such as that which the USA uses is like some kind of hilarious Orwellian parody. I still can't believe it's a genuine thing that people take seriously.

[Original Poster]

The US and other governments need to face the reality that this is a changing game, every action they make only empowers the extremist social movements. Because drugs are kept illegal drug cartels have grown and unionized into armies of gangs and two police forces in Mexico have resigned due to pressure from these cartels. Southeast Asian gangs and Middle Eastern extremists are capable of the same thing. Because the governments have sacrificed freedom and compassion for the sake of security these Extremists have more recruits to fill to ranks of this army. Without a social peace movement I'm afraid it's only a matter of time before entire systems fall to the chaos of extremism.

[Supernova]

Thank god; I think this is the first time I've actually encountered someone else who has come to this conclusion. On a related note, here's an article I found linked from the other pertaining to what I feel to be one of the greatest threats to civil liberties in the US in recent history: There’s a Secret Patriot Act, Senator Says | Danger Room | Wired.com

[Tranquil Toad]

This article highlights one of the major fallacies of democracy. Those who run for office will try to pander to the majority in order to secure votes, which often is not what is best for the country. This results in a sort of political paralysis as politicians are afraid to introduce any major changes. In this case a climate of fear has become the status quo, and no one wants to be the first one to take steps to back away from that. Of course the reaction of going to war was inappropriate, but I imagine the wars were never really about terrorism anyway. Here is the situation: a large section of the world has members of its population which hate you and want to kill your citizens. These people cannot be found easily, as they blend in with the rest of the population and are networked together in only a very loosely organized fashion (hence terrorist cells). Some dude in his basement can get pissed off with America and decide to blow himself up for the cause. Now do you wage war on their country, pissing them off even more causing further cells to spring up, when you can't even find them in the first place? It seems to me the better solution would be to try to get them to hate you less. Understand their culture and alter your foreign policies accordingly. Deliver food, medicine and aid to their citizens. Create stronger trading ties with their country. Remove your military bases from their region. Show them that you respect them and that you aren't the bad guys. They don't hate you for no reason. But again, the wars probably aren't about terrorism. They are about expanding control into that region so an elite few can further line their pockets, and set up a power base in the middle east. Exactly why they hate us in the first place.

[snoop]

I am just puzzled that do most of the people accept and view it as a good thing that 20% of its federal budget is put down on military branch? Hell yeah! I like to have bigger guns, makes me feel more secure with myself. Only joking, but what's unfortunate is that that is the attitude of a lot of Americans, at least those in the West/Midwest and possibly the South (although I can't say for certain because I've never lived there... let's just say it's highly probable). Personally I think a good way to keep ourselves from getting attacked is to quit going into their countries all the time. Maybe if we weren't constantly in their hair (sometimes for no reason at all or for reasons that are our fault) we wouldn't get attacked. Not sure about anyone else living in the US, but I'm pretty sure if a foreign state kept invading us I'd be kind of pissed, you know? I'm sure the American people would be going crazy, even the ones that aren't personally against the foreign invaders or what they stand for. That's why the terrorists have local support (people to hide them or spy for them, etc.), because America keeps on being a retarded dick-face and occupying their countries. For those who argue they want(ed) us there (namely Iraq), that may be true to some extent (maybe when Saddam was actually still alive?). However, I still get whiffs of American imperialism from time to time. Kind of like how Iraq's current constitution is basically a dressed up US constitution with mentions of Islam and the like. We aren't/weren't taking over their country per se, just imposing our values on them. Not necessarily true imperialism, but imperialism looks bad, so why not do it in a slightly more subtle way? Either way I think imposing our values on anyone that doesn't wish to be subjected to it is morally wrong, and we shouldn't want to anyway.

[Descensus]

[Suicideking]

This article highlights one of the major fallacies of democracy. Those who run for office will try to pander to the majority in order to secure votes, which often is not what is best for the country. This results in a sort of political paralysis as politicians are afraid to introduce any major changes. In this case a climate of fear has become the status quo, and no one wants to be the first one to take steps to back away from that. Of course the reaction of going to war was inappropriate, but I imagine the wars were never really about terrorism anyway. Here is the situation: a large section of the world has members of its population which hate you and want to kill your citizens. These people cannot be found easily, as they blend in with the rest of the population and are networked together in only a very loosely organized fashion (hence terrorist cells). Some dude in his basement can get pissed off with America and decide to blow himself up for the cause. Now do you wage war on their country, pissing them off even more causing further cells to spring up, when you can't even find them in the first place? It seems to me the better solution would be to try to get them to hate you less. Understand their culture and alter your foreign policies accordingly. Deliver food, medicine and aid to their citizens. Create stronger trading ties with their country. Remove your military bases from their region. Show them that you respect them and that you aren't the bad guys. They don't hate you for no reason. But again, the wars probably aren't about terrorism. They are about expanding control into that region so an elite few can further line their pockets, and set up a power base in the middle east. Exactly why they hate us in the first place. "I don't know the road to success, but the road to failure is to try and Please everyone."