Perhaps you'll recall how the original hydra was killed? By, in point of fact, cutting off heads, and then cauterizing the stumps.
The problem here is that Islamic extremism is flourishing whether or not they are being bombed. When was Indonesia bombed last? Great Britain? Holland? Turkey?
You can't actually cut off all the heads of radicalized young men. It's not a workable plan. Islamic extremism flourishes because at some level it works for its adherents, and partly it works the same way Jehovah's Witnesses or gangs work: the oppression they experience solidifies them into a group.
Better methods include economic development, educating women, empowering people (who will then choose a theocracy, but, hey, it's THEIR theocracy) and leaving them the hell alone. Iran is a good example of how this can work. China was the same thing the generation before. Let people self-direct their own cultural development.
You can't actually cut off all the heads of radicalized young men.
You don't have to get them all, just improve matters by killing one's enemies so that one has less enemies. And shared oppression only solidifies group membership up to a point -- beyond that point, it discourages recruitment.
Better methods include economic development, educating women, empowering people (who will then choose a theocracy, but, hey, it's THEIR theocracy) and leaving them the hell alone.
The Terrorist leaders and cadre come from the economically developed. The oil money you were complaining about insulating the Wahhabist leadership was an example of the fruits of economic development. In fact, the "economic development" of an enemy often leads to one confronting a stronger enemy.
I'm not sure how you intend to "educate women" in countries where the authorities forbid it, or the rebels are strong enough to aggressively interfere with it. You seem to have the notion that the "powers that be" are sympathetic to Western values, somewhere in the back of your mind.
You can't "leave the hell alone" countries and groups that are attacking you. That is masochism, and leads to attempts to avoid "offending" them and hence drawing attacks by saying things the attackers don't like. Europe is going that way.
Hmm... not sure that I would use Iran as an example of anything "working". Things there have really not been improving in any meaningful way, and it's no less a theocracy now than it ever was.
One of the things that has solidified Islamic extremist enmity against the west has been specifically the western attempts to educate and empower women. They view it as a form of cultural warfare and oppression. That's why they are constantly attacking and destroying girls schools, etcetera.
The present cradle of islamic extremism is and has been the wealthy and minimally oppressed (and never bombed) Saudi Arabia. This goes pretty directly toward contradicting the "economic development" theory.
The problem here is that Islamic extremism is flourishing whether or not they are being bombed. When was Indonesia bombed last? Great Britain? Holland? Turkey?
Sometimes, the problem really is the religion.
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Better methods include economic development, educating women, empowering people (who will then choose a theocracy, but, hey, it's THEIR theocracy) and leaving them the hell alone. Iran is a good example of how this can work. China was the same thing the generation before. Let people self-direct their own cultural development.
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You don't have to get them all, just improve matters by killing one's enemies so that one has less enemies. And shared oppression only solidifies group membership up to a point -- beyond that point, it discourages recruitment.
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The Terrorist leaders and cadre come from the economically developed. The oil money you were complaining about insulating the Wahhabist leadership was an example of the fruits of economic development. In fact, the "economic development" of an enemy often leads to one confronting a stronger enemy.
I'm not sure how you intend to "educate women" in countries where the authorities forbid it, or the rebels are strong enough to aggressively interfere with it. You seem to have the notion that the "powers that be" are sympathetic to Western values, somewhere in the back of your mind.
You can't "leave the hell alone" countries and groups that are attacking you. That is masochism, and leads to attempts to avoid "offending" them and hence drawing attacks by saying things the attackers don't like. Europe is going that way.
Iran is a good example of how this can ( ... )
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One of the things that has solidified Islamic extremist enmity against the west has been specifically the western attempts to educate and empower women. They view it as a form of cultural warfare and oppression. That's why they are constantly attacking and destroying girls schools, etcetera.
The present cradle of islamic extremism is and has been the wealthy and minimally oppressed (and never bombed) Saudi Arabia. This goes pretty directly toward contradicting the "economic development" theory.
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I agree we don't have the stomach for it, but that's exactly what we did 70 years ago to 2 dogmatic, radicalized regimes. At the same time.
The German Nazis and their dogma were equally as powerful with their adherents and (especially) in the SS battalions.
Bushido? Talk about radicalized, let's not forget they started the war longing for Banzai charges with swords.
Smashed.
So yes, it's an option. Or would be, if we had the fortitude for it.
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