Can We Win The War On Terrorism?
Full article
By Terrell E. Arnold
(The writer is a retired senior foreign service officer of the U.S. Department of State.)

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"The implications are clear: The Bush administration is adopting the terrorist's own rules of war. One must ask whether this war is important enough to warrant abandoning established principles of statehood and foreign policy. However, a critical question is: Can we win the war?

"The answer to both questions is no! Abandoning the rules invites everybody to play without rules. Ignoring national boundaries gives others equal rights to do the same. Killing people without trial or proof of guilt invites anarchy. Using assassination is an invitation to political chaos.

"The basic flaw is military power does not stop terrorism. In the past two years Israel invested more than ten billion dollars in Israeli Defense Force operations in Palestine. But the IDF killed or captured only about 1500 Palestinians, most not proven terrorists. Worse still, IDF, the top military force in the Middle East, could not stop the suicide bombers. Our forces spent a year in Afghanistan without corralling Al Qaida. In the meantime, Al Qaida may have carried out several terrorist operations, at least one against US forces. Moreover, as IDF shows repeatedly in Palestine, the human costs are simply appalling. In Palestine, the lives of thousands of innocent people were disturbed, permanently changed or destroyed for only a handful of terrorists."

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Food for thought...
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