So, when and how does the War on Terror end?

[Jaso11111]

Im goin to cote the Fallout games and say:
War never changes
The "War on Terror" is just a chapter in the book of War. Yes it will end, someday somehow, but War WIL continue... and im glad for that!!
For the day that War ends wil be the day that EVERY human has lost free thought and free will...

 

[Thaluikhain]

If you read my whole post(I'm sure you did, I'm just pointing it out for people who read this post and not my last one), you will notice that I say kinda the same thing. I say that you can't beat an insurgency with military force, but I also say that the war on terror will never end because the US policies that lead to terrorism in the first place are still in place, which is exactly what you said, just from another angle.

About US policies, though, it doesn't help that there are any number of important power groups involved, each playing their own game. It only takes one of them to cause a disaster on their own, or by interfering in something vital someone else is doing.

And then, the US in general is blamed...not without cause, but not entirely fair, either. It doesn't take too many fuck-ups by parts to cost the whole its credibility.

Also, I wasn't just talking about modern times, I was talking about historically, where newsworthy has very little to do with it. Admittedly, history doesn't have very much to do with it either.

Well, the Roman Empire seemed to be fairly good at preventing that sort of thing. You have noteworthy exceptions...Boudica and the Iceni come to mind, but they had been loyal Romanised Britains for some time up until then.

 

[Calbeck]

When the terrorists knock it the hell off.

 

[loc978]

The only way it will end is if the US government declares it lost and gives up. "War on Terror" is just an idiotic buzzword that sounds nicer than "reprisal", "revenge" and "invasion"... which is what we've done so far.
Mind you, I think the initial reprisals and the Osama hunt that ensued were as justified as such things can be... but... Saddam? That invasion was just plain ol' bullshit. I know, I was there.

 

[Fbuh]

We didn't even have the terminology War on Terror" until ten years ago. While the US may want everyone to be a capitalist democracy with a free market economy, quite frankly, that would destroy the world. If every country lived as America does, we'd need five planet earths just to sustain us all. Coming from an american, I think perhaps the US needs to back off a little. We got who we were after, now let it be.

 

[Dags90]

I'm curious about how many people are making parallels with the U.S.'s previous "War on Drugs" but no one so far has mentioned LBJ's "War on Poverty".

 

[Odbarc]

It's been almost 10 years since 9/11, Osama bin Laden is dead...like so many other Al Qaeda/ Taliban insurgents. Is the end in sight? How does the end even look like?

Even if you kill every single Al Qaeda/ Taliban operative and their financial backers...the pain and sorrow of 10 years of atrocities (Abu Ghraib/ Guantanamo Bay) and incidents (infamous collateral damage) could possibly inspire a new generation. What is the U.S. gonna do...wipe entire nations of the map...women and children included?

Will the War on Terror end when every single "rogue state" will be a liberal democracy with free market capitalism for ideology and a U.S. base on its territory? What are the chances of that?

Or will it end with the downfall of the U.S. economy (national debt over 14 trillion and counting and the upcoming Medicare/ Medicaid trouble)? Isn't the U.S. technically bankrupt?

Or is there another way?

Or....will it continue indefinitely? Like in the saying "Eternal war for eternal peace"...basically meaning that there never will be peace.

the war on terror ends when someone kills Diablo in Diablo 3 on hardest difficulty. the Lord of Terror will be destroyed once and for all.

 

[mechashiva77]

The way I see it, the goal of the War on Terror is trying to find groups and culprits bent on creating another 9/11. I can't really explain why the government went to war rather than stepping up security and finding the culprit responsible. I certainly don't support paranoid and hyper-aggressive reactions toward attacks such as going to war with Iraq (especially since the two weren't tied together in the first place as far as I know. Please correct me if otherwise), but at the same time I don't support just letting them get away with it. So it won't really end, but protecting ourselves from terrorists is something we can't ignore anyway.

 

[Thaluikhain]

The way I see it, the goal of the War on Terror is trying to find groups and culprits bent on creating another 9/11. I can't really explain why the government went to war rather than stepping up security and finding the culprit responsible.

Well, the US wants to show itself as being the biggest and scariest thing around, so has to make an example of someone after it was attacked, otherwise it stops looking so scary.

Though, Afghanistan would presumably have sufficed for that purpose, attacking Iraq as well seems counter-productive.

 

[Jegsimmons]

when all them mother fucking terrorist die or surrender...and i mean al-queda and who ever openly attacks us.

You do realize that USA is doing more damage to the countries in the middle east than they ever did to USA? It's not the terrorists that's the bad boy here, it's uncle Sam.

so...giving two countries the rights to vote (and democracy overall), the building of orphanages and schools and infrastructure is destroying?
i'm not saying war isnt destructive but dont think we do only harm without compensation. think about the amount of aid (both government AND Charity) is given to Afghanistan and Iraq.

yeah, with all due respect, i'm calling bullshit.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

When the idea of terror itself ends. Pretty self-explanatory really.

 

[Craorach]

so...giving two countries the rights to vote (and democracy overall), the building of orphanages and schools and infrastructure is destroying?
i'm not saying war isnt destructive but dont think we do only harm without compensation. think about the amount of aid (both government AND Charity) is given to Afghanistan and Iraq.

yeah, with all due respect, i'm calling bullshit.

You cannot, as a country that claims to value freedom above all, go into somebody elses nation and say..

"We don't like you're method of government, it's not like our method of government.. so kill that guy, topple the infrastructure, kill a bunch of people... it's okay, you'll be better off!"

If your government wants to build an empire it should man up and build one without apologising. Otherwise, keep its nose out unless people actually need and request help.

 

[ScoopMeister]

As soon as the West gives up. So basically never- you lot are way too stubborn.

 

[Jegsimmons]

so...giving two countries the rights to vote (and democracy overall), the building of orphanages and schools and infrastructure is destroying?
i'm not saying war isnt destructive but dont think we do only harm without compensation. think about the amount of aid (both government AND Charity) is given to Afghanistan and Iraq.

yeah, with all due respect, i'm calling bullshit.

You cannot, as a country that claims to value freedom above all, go into somebody elses nation and say..

"We don't like you're method of government, it's not like our method of government.. so kill that guy, topple the infrastructure, kill a bunch of people... it's okay, you'll be better off!"

If your government wants to build an empire it should man up and build one without apologising. Otherwise, keep its nose out unless people actually need and request help.

if we wanted an empire we would have kept the philippines islands and the panama canal an kept the other countries we went to war with instead of helping them rebuild and send humanitarian aid. we dont want an empire. know why? cause it's over ratted. and learn some history, we went to Afghanistan that was ruled by a murderous terrorist group that attacked us for supporting Israel. they deserve an ass whoopin. they had no government of their own and they had little to nothing to begin with. We went to Iraq because they weren't living better and Saddam tried to commit genocide and was a war criminal on many accounts (remeber the poor Kurds?). also it wasn't the US that invaded iraq, it was the U.N. that invaded. yeah we may be the main force, but it not our fault for pulling some fucking weight around here (no offense to the other nation's soldiers who put their lives on the line over there.)
but maby i'm missing the point, maby we should just let those people live generations under a fascist rule of genocidal war criminals that will kill INNOCENTS because they don't believe the way they do. yeah...thats SUCH a better idea /sarcasm

 

[Jegsimmons]

When we get leadership that leads us out of it. Its a fight we should not have started, a fight that should have been over ages ago, and a fight that continued will destroy us from within or without. The sooner we abandon fighting it overseas and just protect ourselves at home it will be better. I don't mean remove liberties and rights i mean go on business as usual and allow the CIA to track them down.

We have the tools to do it proper so lets not use a sledge hammer when we have the key.

when all them mother fucking terrorist die or surrender...and i mean al-queda and who ever openly attacks us.

You do realize that USA is doing more damage to the countries in the middle east than they ever did to USA? It's not the terrorists that's the bad boy here, it's uncle Sam.

so...giving two countries the rights to vote (and democracy overall), the building of orphanages and schools and infrastructure is destroying?
i'm not saying war isnt destructive but dont think we do only harm without compensation. think about the amount of aid (both government AND Charity) is given to Afghanistan and Iraq.

yeah, with all due respect, i'm calling bullshit.

1. We went in under false pretenses we had NO plan of giving them democracy without gaining in return.(guess what they sit on)
2. For all the infrastructure we do there do you know what it looks like? I would imagine the same as it did but a few more bombed out buildings as well as armed soldiers walking around.
3. So we shouldn't be there but its alright because we are paying them for our troops to go die in an illegal war?
4. The war on terror is NOT by any stretch of the imagination a humanitarian effort. Do not fool yourself into thinking that our troops being over there is helping any thing other than a burning hatred for the USA.

Bottom line we shouldn't have gone over there and if the USA is going to fix infrastructure it should look at its own first.

really? the war for oil argument that still makes little to no sense?
fuck it that doesn't even deserve a counter argument, it's that stupid.

 

[Ickorus]

It won't ever really end but when governments finally get it in their thick little skulls that legalising and controlling the distribution of drugs is the best way to sort out crime organised and otherwise they might also find it the best way to make terrorists much less powerful.

 

[Jegsimmons]

When we get leadership that leads us out of it. Its a fight we should not have started, a fight that should have been over ages ago, and a fight that continued will destroy us from within or without. The sooner we abandon fighting it overseas and just protect ourselves at home it will be better. I don't mean remove liberties and rights i mean go on business as usual and allow the CIA to track them down.

We have the tools to do it proper so lets not use a sledge hammer when we have the key.

when all them mother fucking terrorist die or surrender...and i mean al-queda and who ever openly attacks us.

You do realize that USA is doing more damage to the countries in the middle east than they ever did to USA? It's not the terrorists that's the bad boy here, it's uncle Sam.

so...giving two countries the rights to vote (and democracy overall), the building of orphanages and schools and infrastructure is destroying?
i'm not saying war isnt destructive but dont think we do only harm without compensation. think about the amount of aid (both government AND Charity) is given to Afghanistan and Iraq.

yeah, with all due respect, i'm calling bullshit.

1. We went in under false pretenses we had NO plan of giving them democracy without gaining in return.(guess what they sit on)
2. For all the infrastructure we do there do you know what it looks like? I would imagine the same as it did but a few more bombed out buildings as well as armed soldiers walking around.
3. So we shouldn't be there but its alright because we are paying them for our troops to go die in an illegal war?
4. The war on terror is NOT by any stretch of the imagination a humanitarian effort. Do not fool yourself into thinking that our troops being over there is helping any thing other than a burning hatred for the USA.

Bottom line we shouldn't have gone over there and if the USA is going to fix infrastructure it should look at its own first.

really? the war for oil argument that still makes little to no sense?
fuck it that doesn't even deserve a counter argument, it's that stupid.

Explain how it makes no sense? Wars have been fought since humanity first picked up a club against something other than a meal. This is no different. They have oil, we want the oil, we think up convoluted reason to get around the system so we can wage war for the oil.

no, we went to Iraq because of the numerous treaty violations Saddam made. we sent him an ultimatum, he refused. also, did we get ANY oil from them? not really. we get most of our oil from Saudi Arabia, the amount of oil we get from Iraq wouldn't be enough just to cover the cost of the build up to station them in Kuwait.
So the fact that it was a UN operation and Saddam violated the treaty not only makes the invasion legal, but justified. I'm not saying war is a good thing, honestly i don't want to be in Iraq that much either, but since we are their, lets rebuild and make some good out of it, and we have accomplished that to a fair degree.
Also if we wanted oil so bad, maby we should have just drilled here since our oil reserve would put Arabia to shame since the vast majority is untapped. Drilling here would not only be cheaper but have greater benefits and profit.
If you actually look up some documents and essay pages with a simple google search (hell even a Yahoo answer can point you in the direction of a few) you might actually learn something instead of blindly following a new york time editorial.
Also the war was approved by congress making it legal not only internationally, but locally too.