I think the only way we can realistically cut down on terrorist attacks is to make the consequences for carrying one out so horrible that continued terrorism becomes just too terrifying to contemplate.
Something on the order of bombing a building begets bombing a city.
The terrorists are targeting civilians, yet we refuse to. Bullshit!
Sooooo, what city should we have bombed after Timothy McVeigh?
Your answer is to make us worse than the terrorist?
Not worthy of the effort. The subject was terror attacks by Muslim fanatics.
My answer is to make terrorists think twice about attacking the US.
Look war id horrible and it should be. It should be the last resort, so feared that it almost never happens. BUT when someone engages in warlike acts against the US, I would appreciate it if my leaders fought to win.
We have not won a war since 1945. We only won that one because we inflicted unspeakable damage on a country as a whole, not just their armies. We demoralized millions of people who realized they had lost all hope for victory.
Terrorism is by definition a dangerous game. When you're willing to die for your cause, however perverse it is, intimidation is just not a factor any more; you've already been trumped.
Again, you don't wipe a social/political problem out of existence -- whether it's terrorism or anything else -- by overpowering it and escalating against the symptom. You eliminate the disease whence it comes.
Exactly the same reason I keep saying the answer to guns is
not more guns, and that you
don't calm gun violence by throwing gun laws at it.
Every action has a motivation behind it. If you have a habit of, say, throwing garbage on the floor, you can kill the rats that come for it individually; guess what, they just send more. Stop tossing the garbage on the floor and you eliminate their reason for coming. No more rats -- because their
motivation is gone. And in the long run it's a lot less work.
Taoist thought for the day.