Both Democrats and Republicans claim the war on Terrorism can be won. (Bush recently stated it’s possible it won’t be, but has backtracked).
My question, for anyone who agrees, is how?
You can fight a war against a country, and either win, lose, or get lost in a quagmire.
But fighting terroism is like fighting crime or poverty. It can be reduced. Major practitioners can be captured and prosecuted. But actually end it for all time?
The only way that will happen in our lifetimes is if the Messiah comes in our lifetimes.
Well, I don’t know that you can win a war on Terrorism. It’s the kind of war you can only lose. So, that means we still have to fight.
The key is to reduce it to as little a nuisance as possible. You mention a war on crime… There were a lot of bank robberies in this country between 1850 and 1950. But in the last half century, that’s tapered down. A lot.
Why? Because we’ve put a lot of resources into stopping that. Think about it: an unsolved bank robbery is a rarity in this country. So, while in many areas we aren’t winning the war on crime, we were able to win at least one area we focused on.
It’ll never go away. Terrorism is the inevitable byproduct of democracy. In times past, assassinations were common, but in a democracy, an assassinated leader is generally followed by someone else with a similar agenda.
When the people truly have power, they themselves become targets. Islamist extremists know that the only way that the US will ever change its relation ship with Israel (and that’s their #1 objective) is for the US voters to absolutely demand it. They are betting that US voters would be quicker to drop that support than they would be to go to war.
I know you’re an Old Testament-er, but I had a conversation with a co-worker today, where we mused that the end-times events prophesied in Revelations (and modernized by that Left Behind pap) would be acts of terrorism by God.
More off topic, but your last sentence made me think of this: Back when I still had religion, I rationalized the rightness of both Judaism and Christianity by figuring that the second coming of Christ would co-incide with the first coming of the Messiah…
/thinking
Christy – I tend to agree. When and if the Messiah (Meshiach) comes, Christians will view it (inaccurately from the Jewish perspective) as the second coming, and Jews will view it as the first-coming.
And God, being the merciful, benevolent God, will not punish either one (or anyone else) for creed. Any punishments to be handed out would be handed out for deed.
This is by no means the Orthodox belief, as I am by no means Orthodox. I eat lobster, drive on the sabbath, and have absolutely no problem with any relationship between two consenting (non-sibling) adults.