And this is why we'll never have any long discussions about foreign policy I love you but we just have a fundamental difference in views that would make such discussions a pointless circle jerk.

You cannot stop terrorism with bullets.

Kill all the heads of ISIS, like you did with al qaeda, and something else will just emerge.

^

This

Cool. I look forward to bombing the FSA in 3-4 yrs time too.

It's self-perpetuating bullshit. What we need is to break the cycle... not to arm a terrorist group to take down the last terrorist group we armed. Airstriking the shit out of them isn't gonna work either. It just pisses more people off and pushes them toward radicalisation.

Blowback is a discredited theory.

ISIS is not finding mass support, and they've aroused both popular anger and the ire of surrounding states. Killing ISIS is not angering Sunnis, because Sunnis never supported them in the first place.

Antagonizers like Assad and Malaki have (and had) to go. A Sunni bloc needs to organize itself in Iraq largely independent of Baghdad.

This post was edited by bogie160 on Sep 23 2014 12:12pm

about time

It would be one thing if we were elected to do so (legitimization), and had the power to tax those we police (accountability), but as it stands, we're just expected by the world to up and take care of everyone's problems without any legitimacy or accountability. As it also stands, we're pushing our cultural mores onto peoples who do not hold the same values - something we have no standing to do.

Are you kidding me? A year after the fall of Saddam anti-American sentiment in Iraq was at an all-time high. The west's involvement in middle Eastern affairs helps radicalise muslims. Since when and by whom has that been discredited?

pardon me but I am failing to see how an airstrike campaign is going to be effective. Don't get me wrong i suppose it could be and can be but airstrikes require intelligence and by now I am pretty sure radical terrorists are by now covering their tracks really really well.

I get that it's hard for them to commit boots on the ground but what am I failing to see here? I mean assuming they have lots of intelligence on these targets but these terrorists ofcoarse are gonna know to move around what i am saying it could be easy for them to evade bombs.