Well, "We have to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here" is BS, as proven

[grahamhgreen]

by the recent attacks we've seen.

Now can we try the other philosophy - "We need to stop instigating violence against us by killing children in the ME"?

And see if that works for the NEXT 8 years?

Then we can compare the two models and see which one is best.

[Don Caballero]

1. Not as simple as that

Let's not forget that we were not at war when the terrorists struck us on 9/11.

[alarimer]

3. But we have decades of interfering in that part of the world prior to those event.

I think 9/11 was the direct result of things that we have done. We simply kicked the hornet's nest one too many times.

And of course the subsequent bullshit wars have only inflamed the situation even more.

[StarfarerBill]

7. We're not at war now; the WoT was, is, and always shall be a fiction.

For the umpteenth time: it's our killing large numbers of Muslims directly, or aiding corrupt regimes to do so, that led and continues to lead to the hatred for the West in some parts of the Middle East and Central Asia. Carrying on that strategy will continue to create more terrorists; is that really what you want?

As the OP said, trying a new, more humane policy will bear peaceful fruit...providing that we end our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, stop bombing Pakistan and Yemen, and withhold aid from those governments who brutalize the citizens of their country and/or others until they stop the oppression.

[ThomWV]

2. Has it ever occurred to anyone that maybe we don't really have to fight "them" anywhere?

[stray cat]

4. The epitome of simplistic thought - why arrest child molesters if one remains free?

[grahamhgreen]

6. "We have to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here" is simplistic, I agree.

It is also asinine and deadly and making us less safe.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. Throwing kerosene on fires to put them out is considered brilliant strategy in America. K&R

[Andronex]

8. America was never attacked by outside forces.

and so there is no blow back, just false flags to justify endless war profiteering.

[Lint Head]

9. The last time I checked we were not fighting the Viet Cong over here.

[timeforpeace]

10. Not true. Many if not most AQ terrorists went to Iraq to fight and never went home again.

[grahamhgreen]

12. But we are still, apparently, fighting them over here....

[WT Fuheck]

11. there's no money in not killing children