I've heard all these arguments about abortion before and I don´t give a damn.
It´s the woman's choice and no one else - end of story.
I respect your opinion.
But what will our children for one learn of this?
Life has no value, and we can do whatever we want, we can fix things anyway.
You DO know that these children are our future, right?
I've heard all these arguments about abortion before and I don´t give a damn.
It´s the woman's choice and no one else - end of story.
So you've been in combat - congratulations - so have several of us.
Have you learned something?
Well, I did yes: run away from grenades, and point the end of your weapon to the target.
Both helped me out quite a bit. *grins*
Look at the world history, how´s it gone?
We can´t militarily combat this problem. We can militarily keep it down, but it costs and we can´t afford it in the long run.
Information, education and a better standard of living is the answer. We should turn a foe to a friend.
You forgot a very important fact here: we are HUMAN.
Many will choose NOT to learn, NOT to cooperate, NOT to be civil.
Our ways of dealing with the problems is the problem.
We make micro-attacks over a very long time, instead of going for a mass-cleaning up.
One massive assault I think could turn the tide.
Also expensive, but far less compared to what we do right now.
In asymmetric warfare, the people are the terrain. Most people want to be left alone and simply live their lives. When insurgency or war comes to their doorstep, they have to make a decision..."do we support the insurgents, who likely will be living among us and can take action against me, my family, my village, my community? Or do I support the "coalition, invaders, self proclaimed good guys, or whatever you want to call them", who may or may not be here when the reckoning comes from the insurgents who are going to enact revenge for any cooperation percieved or otherwise?"
Killing the problem reinforces the insurgency. Security is the name of the game. Live in the villages and neighborhoods of the areas you are trying to protect while arming and teaching the locals to defend themselves and at the same time build local relationships that make us and them appear more human. Killing a human is much harder than killing a target or "bad guy". We must display restraint towards the locals which is going to show them who is REALLY on their side, so that when we leave they can and will take care of themselves. Once they have the tools to do so, people are much better at policing their own areas than I, you, or we ever could.
Question: weaponizing and militarizing civilians: do you actually believe that this is the solution?
Look at Iraq: it isn't going well there is it?
IMHO: civilians shouldn't be turned into military/police forces.
That would result in an even higher bodycount on the civilian side.
Thoughts?
As what Kesse said, we cannot afford it any longer.
I understand, but again, it's the way that we try to deal with this, that makes us poor.
AND: the enemy was counting on this.
It's a weakness, this cost.
It'll go far worse, if we do not act.
Mark my words...
I understand that many want to use a humane approach to the Middle East conflict, but " hearts and minds" will not work in this situation for the reason that the people in that region know that no matter what the Westerners do for them or say to them, in the end the Westerners will go home and then they will have to deal with the former insurgents.
They cannot have any longterm protection from those cutthroats so they aren't listening, They aren't buying it, even if their dislike of Westerners for cultural, historic, linguistic and religious differences could be overcome, ( and they can't).
So the only solution is to kill ( or attrit - a Pentagon term) the insurgents. meaning in plain language, kill the insurgents. Air power is an ideal tool for this purpose if it is used with, shall we say, robust rules of engagement. There are no imbedded reporters in the cockpit so you can show the media what you want to show them. Show them the video of the obviously armed insurgent band being obliterated. Don't show them the video of the cluster bomb unit that went astray and took out the orphanage (oops). A veteran U.S. Army officer of the Moro War said many years later that coddling the Moro insurgents worked sometimes, but on balance, he wishes he had killed more of them.
Aye.
And humans will always find a way to make conflict.
If it isn't about resources, land or religion, it will be because of clothing colours, or wearing glasses or not.
We consider ourselves so smart, how then haven't we learned in 300K years how to live in balance with nature or in coexistence with one another and ourselves?
As the Afghans like to say "you have all the watches....we have all the time".
This was what I am referring to.
Our micro-attacks do no damage, no real damage.
And they prey on this factor, they KNOW, and use that against us.
Which in turn made me think that our approach of the problem in heavily problematic...
On a side note:
I do not intend to anger anyone, I am stating thoughts, with a 2-way idea: to make people think, and to gain insights.
I have learned interesting things in this thread, and I truly hope this thread will continue onwards.
Thank you all.
