I still don’t know the fundamental answer as to the question of how you defeat an enemy who is willing to give his life and kill Iraqis along the way just at the chance kill an American.
When you load up a car with a couple of artillery shells and then wait for your enemy to drive by and then detonate... Its hard to imagine how you can effectively fight an enemy who does that.
History would reveal the Japanese just as committed to their wayward cause until the US unleashed a power larger than their comprehensive capabilities upon their's.
It may just take such to overcome extremism again.
Yours is a very legitimate question.
Why do you think these suicide bombers do what they do? Basically it’s because they have nothing to lose. They don’t have the opportunities we have here, where we work hard to make our lives better. They have little hope for a better tomorrow. Their family is hungry, dirty, desperate, afraid, full of fears and sorrows...
Extremists prey on such people, luring them with the promise of money, honor bestowed upon brave martyrs, and a false hope of paradise where everything is happy (as opposed to their life now).
It’s a very powerful play on people’s desperation. (Ignorance plays a part in this as well.)
The only way we can win this War on Terror is if we are able to offer them a better alternative.
If people have the opportunity to work like we do here, then they will be inspired to work and make a better life for themselves and their families. They will not want to blow themselves up because they want to buy that car, or take their kids to the zoo on the weekend, or ask their girl to marry them next month. They would have hope, something to look forward to. Hope is a powerful thing and a strong incentive.
Free people also have access to truthful information, and that can only help people overcome their ignorance. They’ve been lied to for centuries about so many things that it’s hard for us to comprehend what their world has been like.
That’s the only way we will be able to win this war. The only other option is to kill every single Muslim man, woman, and child in every country of the world, and I don’t think that decision is up to us humans.