Threats to suicide bombers do not work. They want to die

[SoCalDem]

It's what they do.

Threatening that we are "gonna get them", is no worry to them. It only makes them stronger, because it elevated their importance.

This is a quirky dilemma we find ourselves involved in.

It's a bit like the political dilemma we have with right wingers.

If we ignore their antics, we are accused of not being on our toes, or maybe what they say is correct.. a win for them

If we "fight back", we are accused of being "just like them"..petty.. (and we are not nearly as good at it as they are)

So the Islamic suicide-cult (an offshoot of Islam..much like the rabid right winger church-set is a spin-off of normal Christianity), is always "in control" of events. we can only react to them, and any reaction only makes them stronger.

They "win" either way.. we fire off missiles & kill innocents along with "bad guys", and they are all holy martyrs..victims of the mean ole USA..

or we mass armies on & inside their borders and we are invaders..another win for the insurgents who are proved right in their assertions that we want to dominate their nation.

or we play whack-a-mole and try to take them out one at a time, and three more spring up for every one we kill.

we go broke and kill thousands of people (on both sides) and their fallen become mythical heroes..to be avenged into perpetuity..

any way you look at it , we cannot "win".

[DJ13]

1. Threaten to keep them alive, that would confuse them

[SoCalDem]

2. Keep them alive in a cell with piped in Carpenters' music

and only O magazine to read :)

[DJ13]

3. Perfect!

:rofl:

[timeforpeace]

6. They already know we will keep them alive forever. Part of the attraction for them.

[Cirque du So-What]

7. That's not as facetious as it first appears

Denying them a martyr's death - with all the benefits they imagine awaiting them in paradise - is truly a fate worse than death. Add to that the knowledge that nobody is writing heroic poetry to their memory and that their families cannot bask in their reflected glory, and surviving would become a true hell on earth. Testimonial videos from incarcerated would-be suicide bombers - showing them wasting away & embracing madness - could prove a powerful disincentive to consider martyrdom as a career option.

[SoCalDem]

11. or watching them reading O magazine in their flipflops

:rofl:

[Cirque du So-What]

14. That's the 'embracing madness' part N/T

[anonymous171]

4. You could threaten to kill their families

But that would be incredibly immoral, not to mention illegal. So I agree with you.

[Warpy]

5. Good police work will slow them down

but kindness is what will break them if we catch them alive.

[endless october]

8. this is what i think the best strategy is :

replace oil completely here in the states. bring all of the troops home. get out of the region.

we'll run our cars electrically until something better comes along tech-wise. meanwhile, the Chinese can keep buying the fucking oil, and it will be up to them to fiddle-fuck around in the Middle East.

we can do this with a coast to coast, 1950s interstate highway level initiative to build non-CO2 producing infrastructure : nuclear, solar, wind, etc.

[demosincebirth]

9. Let them have real sex a few times and that should change their mind about the 72 virgins

[pansypoo53219]

10. you can't stop crazee.

try to keep them pacified.

[Don Caballero]

12. In a post 9/11 America we must assume everyone is a suicide bomber

Then and only then can we defeat the terrorists who want to kill us.

[DLnyc]

15. Absolutely. Put the entire planet in Gitmo and throw away the key.

That'll teach them (us?) not to threaten our freedomz!

[cbdo2007]

13. So your solution was to what again? I missed it...

I understand what you're saying here and it all makes sense, but the point is, is that if we don't eliminate them then they'll grow and kill us all. We have to kill the bad guys somehow.

I agree that the way we do it is questionable but there is no question that terrorists who want to kill us and are actively trying to kill us, are going to kill us if we don't kill them first.

Ideally it would be great to change national policy and run on electric cars and use no more oil or whatever...but at this point we could do whatever the terrorist want and they STILL would want to kill us. Most of them don't even know why they want to kill us. They just do. And they will if we don't do anything, so I hope your life insurance is up to date.

[DLnyc]

16. If you blow yourself up, I'm going to shoot you!

You are right, there is a massive cognitive disconnect here.

Every so often, they station a bunch of guys in battle fatigues with assault rifles in the subway stations here. I don't really picture how a guy who has decided to blow himself up for his 'cause' is going to be frightened away by some guys with rifles. Most likely one day one of these poor kids (I mean the soldiers, not the fanatics) is going to crack under the pressure and shoot up a bunch of civilians. I'm so glad we're acting tough so the terrorists won't think we're wusses, but I don't really see how that makes us safer.

Kerry was right. We need intensive and painstaking police-work, not military bravado. And to make matters worse, an endless state of war and occupation just makes for better cover for the crazies.

Amazing how most people can't see the futility of this approach. Of course, to be fair, you have a massive propaganda operation going to hype up fear and hysteria, so many people are primed to react to a perceived state of siege which is perhaps less intense than Faux Snooze would have you believe. Still, it is sad how we all line up to 'get the bad guys' without really understanding how counterproductive our actions are.