Hastings gull
Well-known member
- Nov 23, 2013
- 4,635
Not sure if air strikes will make them go away though, we need to start thinking outside the box. 14 years of the war and terror and it ain't working..
Because they are still there, it is too easy to say that the war on terror is not working. Yes, they have not been defeated, as bombing on its own will not produce success, but we cannot be sure that it has not had a degrading effect on their ability to wage war. Without bombing, they would have found it much easier to travel, move huge amounts of men around, establish arms dumps and training camps etc etc. I strongly suspect that without western intervention in Afghanistan, whatever one thinks of it, there would have been a Taliban government by now, and an even worse situation.
As ever, we hear criticism of the military option, but the same token applies to your argument. If after 14 years, as you say, we are relying on the usual vague response of "start to think outside of the box", then it would follow that there might just not be an alternative in how to deal with this lot. I am sure most folk would agree that bombing alone will not bring about a solution, particularly with regard to lone-wolf attacks on our doorstep, but I do feel that attacking them really hard on their doorstep, and bombing their oil facilities to try and stop the flow of cash, then this might -just might -bring them to the table, if they fear that their caliphate, or whatever you want to call it, will disintegrate. If not, and of course it is a distinct possibility, given their fanaticism, then I fear that a ground war will be the only option, with all its risks and horrors.