[Jack Moroney (RIP)]

[QUOTE=Black Beard] So with Pakistan, we are trying to make a difference diplomatically-am I correct? If they're literally breeding so many terrorists over there shouldn't we make it priority to do militarily? (FID taking place?) Maybe our Government thinks, or wants us to think we're fighting them by stomping them out at the borders, (in the mountains), in Afgahnistan. It just seems like we are really backing off on operations over there.


Okay, let's define the effort. First we are not fighting a global war on terrorism, regardless of what folks are labeling it ,we are fight Islamic Fundamentalists who use terrorism, among many other techniques, to attempt to co-opt their own religion in order to build their base of support. There are more elements of national power than diplomacy and military that can and are being used to support our national interest in defeating/controlling islamic fundamentalism. You mention FID-in FID the military plays a supporting role not a dominant role and in order for FID to be effective the country in which we are supporting with FID has to take the actions necessary to resolve the problems that are contributing to the growth and support of the fundamentalists that are conducting the terror campaigns both against us and their secular brethern. In order for that to happen we have to help shore up those governments with whatever means we can so that they can gain legitmacy with their own people and solve their own problems with the appropriate measures that fit their culture and needs which may or may not coincide with what we see as appropriate to the way we view things. Islamic Fundamentalists are not the only problem with which we are dealing that require military resources and there are many actions on going world wide that take folks from the visible theather of operations in SWA. Your desire to see things come to a speedy conclusion is understandable but not realistic, you cannot just kill them all and let Allah sort them out, this is an insurgency that has been growing for decades and it is going to take many years to resolve the problems that allowed it to foment and it has to be solved within Islam. This is an very simplistic view of a complicated situation and this topic really has been heavily addressed already.