Regarding the attacks in Paris last night that killed around 127 people (which I am sure may go up as 99 people were critically wounded out of 200 injured), we must resolve to stop terrorists whenever and wherever we find them. What does that mean though?
We already went into two Muslim countries to fight terrorism, spent 15 years there and tens of trillions of dollars, and accomplished nothing. Nothing at all. In fact, us being there made the problem worse. You cannot fight an ideology, or terrorism, like you would another country’s army. One is a philosophy, the other is a tactic. The terrorists would like nothing more than for the West to drop another 200,000 man army in the Middle East. It will be their greatest recruiting tool ever. And then they would blend into the civilian population, forcing us to kill and harass and terrorize civilians, thereby creating more terrorists who hate us for being their occupier.
So when I say we must fight terrorism, I do not mean fight it like a war.
No, the only way to fight them is containment, drone strikes and special ops that takes them out one by one. I know that is less satisfying to the red blooded vengeance we crave, but it’s the smart way to do it. And it is what we are doing. We have to, along with our allies, and Russia, redouble our efforts, and better coordinate strategy.
The dumb way is what the neocons in the Republican Party would have us do: putting an invading army of hundreds of thousands on the ground in Syria and Iraq.