Originally Posted by
a_coathanger
I don't give a fuck what happens to terrorist period. They made their choice and now they have to expect us to make choices as well. If they didn't want us in their land they shouldn't have done 9/11.
There are many militant groups in the middle east, as well as regional militias who are trying to defend their land. We're not fighting a war against "The Terrorists" like they're some kind of army. We're fighting to bring stability to these governments.
Terrorist groups often recruit by appealing to anti-American sentiment within the civilian population. As long as we own military bases in these countries and continue carrying out this anti-terrorist campaign, they will be able to claim that we're the imperialist invaders. When trying to secure our own safety, it's self-defeating to keep fighting overseas. Preemptive military action against civilian combatants in foreign countries has made us no safer and drained our budget surplus. If our real goal is national security, we would invest in our ports.
The real reason we're staying is to protect the stability of these countries' governments. I don't know the best way to do this, we can keep our soldiers in and keep spending money or try to train the local governments and wind up with half of them working with Al-Qaeda. It's a bad situation all around, and I don't have the solution. But don't kid yourself into thinking that this "war" is winnable or that it's a war. It's a shit sandwich, and now we have to eat it and smile or else get out of there and see what horrible things happen.