Terrorism and WMD

During the ‘Blitz’ of England in 1940, the English civilian population was massively in favor of bombing German cities. A popular saying was ‘Give it ‘em back’. They were being bombed and wanted to hit back. Bomber Command did just that and eventually, hit them back far more than they were hit. This is a natural human reaction. Escalation is how wars are won. The winner escalates the war until the other side either cannot or will not match. Sometimes exhaustion sets in on both sides and a cease-fire is established. Typically, this is satisfactory to neither side.

After 9/11, it was not uncommon to hear from the Islamic world that ‘It is good that Americans know fear’. This is a natural reaction to a community who believes itself under attack by the U.S. and the ‘West’. In other words, they are at war with us. This was well before our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. This shows me that even IF we ‘win’ in Iraq and Afghanistan, this war would be far from being over. Our enemy will continue to escalate until their ideology is commonly accepted, or the ideology is so discredited that it becomes a footnote of history. The problem is numbers.

Our enemy has irregular forces scattered throughout the Islamic world. Guerrilla forces are typically manned and supplied from the local population. This is a cause for concern in that so much of the Islamic population is actively supporting these ‘irregular’ forces. The overall population in the Islamic world is so large that it actually enables these terrorist forces with a global reach. This is unprecedented.

This war is much larger than what is being fought. The ideology of our enemy is so wide spread that the war can be expected to continue for decades at the very least. This war will continue to escalate until a decisive point is reached. The only way that I know of that can be decisive and quick is the use of WMD. Sooner or later an effective weapon of mass destruction will be deployed. The use of these types of weapons will escalate because even if we do not begin the process of using them, our enemy will continue to until we decide to ‘Give it ‘em back’.

In order to change the ideology of our enemy, the educational systems of the areas that are supporting these ‘irregular’ forces must be changed. Tell me I can’t send my kids to a school that I want them to attend and teach them the basics of what I believe? I would fight that with bullets myself. This type of change threatens way of life. This is a basic cause of most wars. In order to change the educational systems, the government would have to be implementing these changes. Once again, a basic problem here is that time is not on our side. Change like this will take generations. We do not have this much time, unless we wage offensive warfare in the form of toppling governments that support Islamic terrorism. In any case, the use of WMD and retaliation with use of these weapons can only be a matter of time.