hedge wrote:Nothing we've done in the middle east (pick your country) in the past 10+ years has done anything to prevent the next terrorist attack. No amount of military action could. Just like no amount of police action could stop what's his name from bombing the federal building on Oklahoma. But evidently the idea spending billions (trillions?) of dollars and thousands of lives in a pointless action against an essentially faceless enemy makes some people (like you) feel more "secure". Not me.
I would say the odds are very great that there will be another terrorist action in America in our lifetimes. Whether it's conducted by foreigners or a good ol homegrown Amurcan, I don't know. Hell, why aren't we calling that shit at Sandy Hook a terrorist attack? But the only reaction I see in here about that is "there's nothing you can do when somebody goes crazy like that, it's a tragedy, yes, but there's not much you can really do to stop it, certainly not even HINT at guns having ANYTHING to do with it, blahblahblah". Status quo all the way. But when a raghead or some "foreigner" does it? Pull out the checkbook, load up the guns, we're by god going to kill some motherfuckers, I don't care how much it costs or how many of our guys die in the process. Ooo, boy, we're really tough.
Again I say: Mighty easy to take that position when it's somebody else's life on the line. Mighty easy to sit in our living room and watch TV every night and drink beer and rant and rave on the internet while somebody else does the shit work and gets blown apart in the process, irregardless of how much you or anybody else "reveres" them. Your reverence and 2 dollars will buy them a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Just keep it...
If you are talking about a few guys or even one on their own doing something, sure. I would expect that to happen some point in the future. 911 type level a vastly different story. That takes serious planning and coordination and training. That is where disrupting them by fighting them there makes a difference. And that doesn't mean it has to be thousands of troops on the ground it could mean forward bases for special forces, combined with fighters and drones. It's a helluva lot harder to plan and train when you are worried about spec ops, hellfires, and/or GBU's wiping you from the face of the earth.
As to your other point...well the what the hell do we have a military for? If someones life is at risk, we shouldnt do anything? Were you the one person who voted no on declaring war on japan after pearl harbor?
I'm not allowed to have an opinion cause I'm not there? That's a load of crap. You don't think it's doing anything and a waste of time and lives. If you feel that way I get your opinion, but I disagree. Its almost impossible to stop the one guy or few guys from shooting up a mall, or car bombing etc. I would argue that AlQ would be more effective if they just had people over here doing what terrorists do in Israel with small attacks all the time. However the big attack like 9/11 is what we have had an impact on.