166 / Alright, The War on Terror - how will we win it?
Many, many years ago (ages ago, it seems) I wrote my Pacifist Manifesto. It was in reaction to an email discussion I had with a supporter of war ("I'm in favour of military action," he said at the time) ostensibly in order to defeat those who delivered terror on us.
We are still fighting this 'War on Terrorism' - a war, in other words, on a tactic, not on an enemy; a war which can never be won. And this tactic, or idea, was never as fearsome as it was painted, and is by now a much weakened force. Terrorists have carried out some successful attacks (bear in mind that 3,000 people died on 9.11 and more than 4,000 American soldiers died in the the War on Terror; 10,000 died of world wide terror attacks, the war on Terror produced collateral damage of anywhere between 100,000 and 1,000,000.)
Many attacks, though, have been successfully foiled, and what has succeeded best was ordinary police work. The Bali bombers, for instance, were patiently hunted down. Would-be imitators have been identified early and arrested before they have had the chance to commit their atrocities.
This is where the conflict will be won. Not in some world-scale conflict by civilisations, but by steady progress and police work, and - importantly - with education and economic development to give the marginalized a stake in society (SMH).
As if we didn't know that all along.