72 individuals on terror watch list working for DHS

[John Galt]

[Dylan]

[John Galt]

the only way to truly end the threat is to throw the ring of islam into the fires of mt. doom. since we can't do that, we can only play whack-a-mole, waiting for them to have their reformation and revelation of the truth that their prophet was a charlatan.

with ISIS it's easier than al-queada. while AQ had more complex highly sophisticated terror plots, ISIS gets its strength by the fact it is alive and has a physical presence and territory under its control. some muslims flock to that, and end up performing terrorism in their name because it appeals to them. destroy their claim to statehood, and end the problem. and yeah, then we just leave. if they show up again just do it again. this is what you do when you have termite infestation. you have defenses and take out any known hives. you set poison and traps but one day you still might end up with termites in the middle of your house again. kill them and find where they are coming from, kill that, and set up defenses again. what you can't do is kill all the termites in the world, even though that would end the problem. because even if we killed them all today, an idea is more insidious in its evil, which is why the entire ring must be thrown into the fire. or whack a mole.

[Dylan]

I agree whack-a-mole is the only option. But we've seen the folly of land occupations in the ME and elsewhere. It's not effective and it's incredibly costly. A political solution is the only way to get rid of areas with no true state presence. Obviously that requires military means, but an occupation isn't the way to go and killing and then leaving would do nothing in this situation since nobody would control the area. We'd have to go back 6 months later. We stayed in Iraq for almost a decade and barely achieved a semi-sustainable state. And Iraq was in better shape than Syria. Imagine how much work it would take to get a state back in control in Syria.....

[John Galt]

if syria turns into somolia II i don't care. what difference would it make if ISIS and successor is gone, as is any other state?

[Dylan]

Because then the problem emerges again swiftly. And all we achieved was spending American soldiers' lives and money.

And we're seeing the counterpoint to Obama's message of tolerance and American values from Trump, who thinks we should now make immigration decisions based on religion. I appreciate him proving my point even if his message is antithetical to my views and American values.

[John Galt]

[Dylan]

[John Galt]

[Indy]