Obama to end the War on Terror?

[lnrw]

[Ben Huh]

I have supported the war in Afghanistan since day one, but it is time to end it. Our troops have fought valiantly and have unfortunately achieved little due to corruption within the ranks of the Afghan military and government. That has literally been the situation in Afghanistan for at least the past 7 years; waiting and waiting for the Afghans to pick up the slack. It is done. Fighting terrorism can be done with smaller units and politicking and not military invasions. Odd thing is, outside of not renewing the SOFA with Iraq, Obama has been as strident as Bush in the WoT.

[Spider]

Meh. It's what he ran on. He was always pro-Afghan occupation.

But end the wot? That's a global issue so far beyond the powers of that office it hardly bears thinking on. We could withdraw from the world completely and build a 100 ft wall around the entire country with a white flag raised...and we'd still be fighting it.

Terrorists are irrational lunatics by nature. Like any other segment of the crazy population, you just have to deal with them like an ongoing headache.

[lnrw]

[lnrw]

[Spider]

I'm just saying that its going to have to be fought regardless of what happens with Afghanistan.

[lnrw]

[Spider]

Certainly not on the level of knocking over any more entire countries, and hanging around for additional decades of irritating occupation.

I'd assume it'll shake out to be an ongoing series of specials forces actions, drone strikes, and reconnaissance. Maybe some larger scale bushfire flareups here and there requiring larger deployments to handle. If a major attack is carried out again, you can be sure it won't be shrugged off.

The alternative is to passively stand by while terror orgs regroup and rethink. Too easy to focus on the nuts blowing up marathons or beheading people in Britain, and lose sight of the macro scale. If we take the pressure off of them, whats to prevent them freedom of movement and planning? Plus, with all the upheaval from the Arab "Spring", there is just too much of a politically exploitable potential power void.

Actually eradicating them isn't a possibility, and so isn't a measure of success. Finding the most efficient way to force them to keep their heads down is the only option we've really got.

[lnrw]

[The Dude]