If you were president how would you conduct the War on Terrorism?

[IranianDemocrat]

?

[Skip Intro]

1. Well, If we'd stop f**king around with other peoples' countries

maybe they'd stop trying to f**k us.

Just a thought.

[Eloriel]

24. Eggggsackly

I'd make our foreign policy match what Americans think it is. And then we'd have friends all over the world. Actually, even as bad as we've been we still had friends all over the world (tho not universally), until Bush thumbed his nose at them.

I might try to go after Al Qaeda and Hamas, and I'd make sure our domestic defense was top-notch. But it wouldn't be a "war." Not even close.

Eloriel

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

2. General Wesley Clark would conduct the war on terrorism better than me

so if Kucinich or Gephardt were President, I would trust them to do the right thing and make sure General Wesley Clark conducts our war on terrorism. I have no doubt he would do a better job than Bush. Hell, anyone could do better than Bush.

If Clark becomes President, I'm sure the real threat of terrorism would subside. After all, it's Bush's weakness and his compromising business relationships with the Binladens and the Saudi royals that invited the terrorists in the first place.

[CoffeePlease1947]

12. I concur

I would leave it up to Wesley. I think Bush has messed things up that only Wesley could fix. Bush is making things worse for us and terrorism, not better. Remember, Osama bin forgotten and Saddam Husittinfine, are the American enemies. He has gotten none of them but has instead targeted innocent people and mobilized the world against us. Way to go Bush! I think only Clark, Kerry, and maybe Edwards could get us out of this culsterfuck.

Mike

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

20. Clark, Kucinich, Edwards, Gephardt, Moseley-Braun

All of them are credible on national security, Clark obviously especially so.

[markus]

3. Loaded question

You assume that we are at war with terror.

One can't be at war with terror or terrorists. Terrorism is a criminal problem, and should be fought by the same means as other crimes.

War is conflict between nations.

More people die every year from drug overdoses than died on September 11. Are we at war in Columbia? (I mean in the way we're at war with Iraq).

I would conduct the war on terror the way I could conduct the war on heroin, slavery and corporate and Republican criminals.

[rooboy]

4. If I were president there wouldn't be a "war on terrorism".

How the fuck do you declare war on an abstract noun? This is a propaganda tool designed to create a militarized state that never ends.

Everybody knows that.

[lcordero]

5. there is NO war on terrorism

The whole "war on terrorism" is nothing but a deception.
Put shrub* and his whole misadministration and contributors in Hague, confiscate all of their assets, set up laws so that nothing even remotely like this will happen again and enforce those laws.

[Brucey]

6. A beginning

Build friendships and alliances within the Arab world... listen to what they say and help them... don't assume they want what we want. Stop mega-corporations from raping middle east countries... put controls on them... give the profits to the people whose land is being stolen and controlled. Build a worldwide intelligence and policing agency aimed at prevention rather than punishment.

[Yupster]

7. I guess the consensus answer so far

most people here wouldn't.

[Blitz]

10. You didn't really need this thread to know that

did you?

[Yavin4]

8. This Is How I'd Do It

First, I'd mandate that the U.S. has to reduce dependence on fossil fuels or pay huge taxes and fines. Mandate that the auto companies develop alternative fuel source cars in ten years or get slapped with huge penalties. This move would go the farthest towards de-funding terrorists than anything else.

Second, I would convene an international summit within in the U.N. against terrorism, which is the use of violence against civilian populations. I would put terrorism in the same league as genocide.

Third, I would convene another forum with the Arab nations and NATO whereby we would pressure these nations to crack down on terrorism while at the same time get them to liberate their own people.

[E_Zapata]

9. I would find a way to diffuse the reasons so many hate us

And that means getting the F out of the middle east, and best of luck to Israel!

[aquart]

11. Declare it over. We don't make war on cockroaches.

We simply step on them and keep going.

[StandWatie]

13. easy

I'd tell the world that the US was no longer interested in the job of Hyperpower and holding together the empire, bring the troops back, stop selling guns to everyone in the world and watch the "War on Terrorism" recede into distant memory.

[JanMichael]

14. The WTC/Pentagon attacks were/are a POLICE matter.

They were/are treated as a military matter which is, quite frankly, a waste of money.

It's akin to using an F-111 to bomb a guy pusshing a bike laden with grenades over a mountain pass.

Odds are you miss the tiny target yet spend an atrocious mount of money which feeds the MIC.

It was a bad idea 30 years ago and it's still a bad idea.

[will work 4 food]

15. hmmmm

How did we defeat the USSR? How did Reagan get Germany to tear down that wall? You get more ants with honey, than shit.

[Individualist]

21. If you believe

Reagan got "Germany to tear down that wall", there's a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.

[JanMichael]

27. What?

I think I know what you mean but frankly I'm blocked (inebriated) so please make yourself more clear:-)

[doubleplusgood]

29. Bill Gates defeated the USSR

moreso than anything Reagan ever did....along with everyone else in silicon valley who developed products & tools to increase business productivity & efficiency. The Soviet economy, at long last, collapsed under it's own inefficiency.

[ScreamingMeemie]

16. There can be no war on terrorism, and if there is, there is no way to end

it. I mean, right now, terrorists are being born. This very day. That gives them 16 or so years to grow...and so on. It's inane to have a "war on terror".

[mike_c]

17. the war on terrorism is like the "war on drugs..."

...a war on human nature. There is no way such a war can succeed. It's public relations, and an attack against human rights, and little else.

[Nicholas_J]

18. Immediate Statehood

For the Palestinians:

The lack of this statehood is the breeding ground for terrorism. It creates fertile soil for terrorism, and has done so for over 50 years.

[Sick of Bullshit]

19. I would call for a thorough investigation into what actually happened

on 9-11

Too many people buy into the official "freedom-hating guy in a cave planned and executed everything" bullshit, when the son-of-a-bitch would have no way of knowing that an AFB just 10 miles from the Pentagon would just sit there (like the pretzeldunce in the classroom) while a hijacked jet headed for DC.

Too many godddamn unanswered questions

[Pepperbelly]

22. For starters, Hart-Rudman recommendations should be adopted ....

We should get out of Iraq in the fashion best to minimize further causalties on ALL sides, struggle for UN control of Jerusalem and get that stone out of the shoe of the peace process, and find an envoy to work on peace in the Holy Lands, maybe even a whole damned team of people including Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson and whoever else might have a snowball's chance in hell of affecting that caldroun of hatred and violence.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is the kernel of infection that is causing almost all of it.

[Starpass]

23. If you come up with an answer, let's fax a copy to Israel and Palestine

..in a word there is no way to fight it. It's like fighting a hurricane. You nail down anything that's loose and ride it out. We would do better beefing up security in this nation and stop this idiocy. We need to have decent foreign relations back so we can cooperate with nations in the constant tracking and monitoring of these people. For sure, we can't do this alone. Oh, and getting rid of republicans would help calm things down.

[quaker bill]

25. To begin with

I would stop selling them weapons and training them at the "School of the Americas".

Second I would recognize the right of sovereign nations to elect (or have) governments we do not get along with.

Third, I would move our country away from being the worlds largest arms merchant.

Fourth I would move our country away from it's dependence on foriegn oil. (the best idea Jimmy Carter had)

Fifth I would encourage economic and social justice using the power constructive economic relations (being the largest economy in the world makes us very strong in this regard).

I would work to end poverty and disempowerment which are the source of terrorist recruits. (like perhaps encouraging countries to create free public education systems rather than shutting them down like we did in Nicaragua.)

The list goes on and on. Do something about corporate exploitation of workers..... how many other ways does this administration just not get it???? Undo all that stuff.

[ConsAreLiars]

26. The MOST Dangerous and Deadly Delusion of all

Is that "terrorism" can be suppressed by military invasions and occupations when in reality the opposite result happens.

edit:word omitted

[Lydia Leftcoast]

28. First of all, I would get it through my head...

that terrorism is not an ideology or a united worldwide movement. It's a tool. A terrible tool, but one used by fanatics of every stripe.

In the 1970s, terrorism was radical students around the world with delusions of grandeur.

Now it's various Islamic groups and anti-abortion fanatics and general nutcases.

The real question, rather than fighting terrorism, is how to deal with the fact that our relations with the Islamic world are in the toilet.

Muslims have a sense of international solidarity, and anyone who seems to be supporting a country that is seen as oppressing Muslims (for justified or unjustified reasons--I'm not going to get into I/P debates. I'm just talking about how Muslims perceive the situation) is going to be seen as an enemy by the more fanatical types.

Going into Afghanistan and Iraq with heavy military force against a country that's already been shattered by war (Afghanistan) and a country that has been weakened by sanctions (Iraq) while sabre-rattling against Iran and helping the Philippines suppress a revolt by Muslim ethnic groups does not help the situation at all.

A person who views the whole world in terms of "Is it good for Muslims" is going to hate the U.S., which is acting as if it's the enemy of Islam.

I agree that the first thing we need to do is to get the Israelis and Palestinians back to the conference table, slamming heads together if necessary, and not tolerating any self-serving excuses for brutality. Any settlement that is going to work will require both sides to give up something.

As far as narco-terrorists and the Shining Path in Latin America, there an entirely different bunch. They pose no threat to the U.S., except possibly some U.S. business interests, and so we should butt out and let the relevant countries handle them.