Do you think the war on terrorism will ever end?

[Rune hunter]

Well Its been more than 5 years since this "war on terrorism" started. Do you think it will ever end? Will we ever truly find peace?

[Scott]

Declaring war on terrorism is ridiculous. You can't really declare war on an action..an Idea and expect to win. That's like declaring war on walking.

So, no. I don't think it will ever end in the sense of terrorism coming to an end.
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To relive those Halcyon days of youth

[Rune hunter]

[Sniper_Zegai]

I have to agree. The whole idea of "The War on Terror" just seems well stupid to me. It just re-inforces the image that America thinks that its the police for the world and thats its single handedly gonna wipe out terrorism.

How they plan to do this by the way completly eludes me. You cant destroy an ideal. "The War on Terrorism" is clearly what they were going for but Terror? It kinda makes me laugh. But the actual results of this war are less than funny and America are more or less trapped in Iraq now.

A change in any country will bring about instability but Iraq was in turmoil before America arrived. I dont know what they were expecting to happen? When they removed Suddam, the Iraqi people would just accept America.

A comedian I saw probably put it the best "America has brought alot more freedom to Iraq but nothing has really changed for example you can now get tatoos in Iraq. You can either choose 'I love you Mom' or 'Death to America'. Id go with 'Death to America' you never know how your feelings for your mother might change.
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[blueflame]

I don't think one can clearly wipe off terrorism unless of course you wipe out and kill millions of people because this is the only way to kill off an ideology. I think America is trying to just contain this ideology like what they did to communism.

[Splendid Monkey]

[Vextor]

The "War on Terror" will hopefully end when Bush's term ends at the end of 2008. A new US president will hopefully reverse course and do something a tad more beneficial for all concerned parties.

[Tendou Souji]

Replying to blue, and to quote V: "Ideas are bulletproof."

You can't ever wipe out an idea. And even if you think you have, it'll wound up coming back some day, some way.



But anyways, some day maybe. Some day. World doesn't just go and change itself, but hopefully somebody'll do the job.

[Rune hunter]

[Vextor]

Well, the world seemed somewhat peaceful back in the ene of the 90's, but that also depends on what you consider as "the world."
There was at least about 30 armed conflicts going on back then, mostly in Africa (Somalia, Sudan, Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda, etc to name a few) but also in other places--such as the civil war in Sri Lanka which has been going on for more than a decade now. Yemen also had internal revolts back then... and the caucasus region had numerous problems, mostly ethnic uprisings such as in Dagestan, Cherkesia, Kalmuk and we can't forget Chechnya. Fights between Kurdish separatists (PKK) existed in Turkey for quite a while, and still continues, while some states are technically at war, although there has been no fighting--such as North Korea / South Korea and Taiwan / China.

These conflicts may not have been reported all that much in the news back then, but it was still going on.

[Sage]

The war on terrorism will eventually end. It won't end with end of the terrorism (i.e. we won't "win"), but someone at some point will stop it.

I've never had a problem with the idea of the war though. Putting a stop to terrorism was a nice idea, though impractical. Even attacking Afghanistan was ok as far as I am concerned as they had connections to an attack on the US. But now, the policy is stretched to make far too many actions seem reasonable. I expect the next administration will put a stop to a lot of military actions.
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[Tullaryx]

The best example of why the war on terrorism would never really end in the minds of its people is the sense of siege the Israelis feel since their nation was created. To them terrorism has been a way of life for over 50 years and there's really no end in sight. In terms of fighting terrorism, or containing it as some have mentioned, the United States is quite new to such an endeavor. The United States as a nation has always been sort of detached when it came to the subject. For starters, the country as a whole was never attacked by a foreign group and/or a domestic insurgency while other nations have been dealing with it for decades.

The United States has always seen itself, for right or wrong, as the architect of its own destiny. I don't know why people seem so surprised by how the nation and its government reacted to 9/11 the way it did. This nation has always acted in a unilateral fashion when outside forces begin to encroach on its sovereignty. It goes all the way back to the Barbary Wars of the early 1800's. The United States as a whole believe that no one else but itself will solve problems plaguing it. Despite helping create the United Nations, the United States has seen itself either alone many times in dealing with crisis which directly or indirectly affect it.

I do think that changing presidents beginning in 2008 will not change the problem in terms of terrorism against the United States since it's not a specific political party Muslim extremists and terrorists hate and target but Americans as a whole. People seem to think that by getting rid of Bush the world will right itself back to pre-9/11 status quo and that anyone outside of Bush will lessen terrorist attacks. That's naivete at its highest. At its most basic common denominator the terrorists bent on attacking Americans do so because that is what they want. In their idealogy the destruction of America (and Israel) is the ultimate goal of their cause. If it means going attacking America's allies to fulfill that goal then they will do so.

So, in the end what people should be wishing for to see an end to the terrorism they think the United States caused by its action is to see the destruction of the United States as a nation, culture and a people. If that doesn't stop terrorism then I would assume people may have gotten it wrong that the United States is the cause of it all.
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[Vextor]

Just to clarify, all I said was that the "War on Terror" will likely end when Bush is out of office, but I didn't say terrorism will end or anything. Just making sure nobody mistook what I said.

[Tullaryx]

[Fu Su Lu]

War on Terror is a dumb definition.
Terrorism is not likely to end when Bush leaves the White House, there has always been terrorism and conflicts, most of them being ignored by the way.
The problem is uncle Bush has been an IDIOT. When 11 September happened, the whole world was supporting the United States (and please dont bring those images of Palestinian people clapping on the streets, those were images older than 11 September). Afghanistan war was ok, supported by the ONU and it was against the Talibans, who had clearly supported Al Qaeda. Instead of focusing in doing things well in Afghanistan, Dubya goes and declares war on Saddam to get oil and to please Bush senior. Iraq yeah, a country ruled by a dictator, a militar dictator, not a fanatic religious...

Changing the subject, some people think that terrorism began on 11 september... Some countries like Spain and Great Bretain can tell you thats not true at all.
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