america is doomed... it is nowhere near ready to handle encounters of this nature...and, i think never will be

There are many pitfalls... but I have learned never to say never with Americans. Whatever else they may be, they are adaptable. This is precisely, in fact, what makes them so very dangerous when provoked.

In the case of Muslim terrorism, the response is easy, assuming the political will exists: Destroy what they most value in reponse to terrorist attacks. Mecca, Medina, and a hundred other "holy cities" and mosques would top the list. That's what I call asymmetric warfare. (Just have to be careful that so-called allies don't take advantage of the system, so that we do their dirty laundry.) Think of it as a class with a few hooligans. Punish the class as a whole and they will stop the miscreants.

PacRim Jim:

That won't work. There are examples (alas, none come to mind) of Muslims destroying their own mosques. The setbacks the Prophet faced while trying to convert the heathens in the Hejaz would also be called upon by imams trying to continue the struggle. Last, Islam is as much a culture as a religion - perhaps more.

America Doomed:

How So? They can set off as many dirty bombs
as they want, kill as many people as they did
on 9/11 50x over. The next day, America will
only gain in resolve. The more they attack,
the more often they attack, the greater resolve
grows. Americans just aren't good at being afraid
the way most of the world is; fear tends to turn
to anger.

4th Gen Warfare:

I'm wondering what is so new about this? Sounds
very much like the kind of analysis that
would have been made after the assasination that
kicked off WW I. Terrorism isn't new, terrorists
attacking a power like the US isn't new. This
wave of terrorism started in the 70s and it too
shall pass.

Bombing:

It's important not to over react to a few
miscreants and do something that will lead to more
hatred for millinea to come. How many Anarchist
terrorists do we see assasinating world leaders
these days?

When the US ceases to exist it will have nothing
to do with these guys. That's not to say that
they can't kill lots of Americans and shouldn't be
dealt with. But, to suggest they will destroy
the US is a bit ludicrous.

"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume I, "Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum,of Springfield, Illinois (January 27, 1838), p. 109.

Interesting as it was the first time.

The issue which America confronts in Iraq and in the War on Terror generally, is how to change the behavior of a small, badly identified minority within the Islamic world.

Using 3rd generation tactics - vastly refined and improved with the digital battlefield suite of technologies - the American forces are capable of beating any formal army in the world.

Now the question is whether the principles of net battlefield can be translated into the more difficult fields of intelligence and policing. I suspect they can but it will require a re-orientation of how intelligence services understand their mission.

On the other side, the hearts and minds, America can be remarkably hamfisted. In a sense Americans live in an entirely different world and century than the jihadis. It is not just a cultural difference; it is a difference in the temporal postion of much of the Islamic world as compared to the West and America in particular.

Most Americans, regardless of political position, embrace the future. Many Muslims cling to a long distant past.

PacRim,

While at some point any war may spin out of control, I don't want our side playing "Taliban with the Buddhas" unless we're absolutely out of other options. That isn't who we are, and I hope it isn't who we become.

Besides, we have more threatening tools at our disposal that will work for us rather than against us. Our culture, for one, if we can hold their attempts at military/4GW response down and keep the Islamists off balance with our own responses and use of force.

Which is the big question. Actually, the dark scenario in all of this is not Mecca & Medina, but Belmont Club's famous 3 Conjectures

I was recently talking to a friend who sees that horizon as 10-20 years out, and I tend to agree... but if we haven't solved or vastly reduced the problem by then, the whole world could be in for huge, huge trouble. And Al-Qaeda won't be the last enemy of this kind that we fight.

As much as the current Muslim victim/abuser mindset appals, I'm more convinced than ever that the real problem remains Socialism. So called 4G warfare only succeeds because the 'leadership' classes of societies (I mean this broadly and I write from Australia) have been infiltrated and/or brainwashed into acting as advocates and agents for the terrorists.

If the media, academia, education, legal system and bureaucracy weren't thick with left-wingers trying to undermine our resolve, justify the unjustifiable, misdirect the blame, muddy the waters and play all the other socialist games, then 4G would never work.

The states that support terrorism still need armed forces to defend themselves. If Syria, Iran, Saudi etc found that terrorist activity that could in some way be linked to one or all of them (in other words, all of it), was followed by the destruction of their infrastructure and conventional forces - in other words if we acted as if we were really in the war we are in - terrorism would be stopped. And it's the leftists within our own societies that make such extreme efforts to stop that happening.

In a sense they are correct when they say we need to look to our own society for the root causes of terrorism, but not in the way they mean. Basically the terrorists are the proxy forces of the allies of one side of a civil war within the West itself.

yeah, well we best be learning how to farm. because that is all we will be: a 'nation' of poor, third-world farmers. shunned by the civilized world, we will no longer be alowed access to technology or anything but the most basic of tools. dark ages agaen, while stability and peace return to those on the other side of the fence.