It does? so why do we still have terrorists?
For the same reason even a McVeigh can rise out of the American landscape. Don't confuse "terrorist" with "terrorism." See this is what I'm talking about when it comes to baseless opinions. The military will do their part. It's the civilians who fail at diplomacy and then send in the military to clean up their messes who cling to the idea that they still have a chance to bring peace while cuffing the military. And they always convince the rest of the country that only they can talk us into a victory or at least a way to escape what they began. This is not to suggest that social problems throughout the Middle East doesn't demand a more diplomatic fix, but we are passed the idea that terrorist may one day organize enough to attack us. Our diplomats failed. We will not fail unless civilians demand it which is what they were doing in regards to Iraq. In the mean time, our diplomats continue to fail by not identifying what needs to happen throughout the region that does not need a military hand. Education, fresh water deliverance, social freedoms, are examplesof what our diplomats should be working towards. In the meantime, the military will focus on the gun toting terrorists. Our goal is not to stamp out terrorism. It is, however, to reduce it to a more manageble beast than it was allowed to be.
First people have to understand this enemy, which they don't. And second they have to recognize history's lessons, which they don't.
Myth 1: "
You can't fight terrorism with guns." Fortunately our military isn't expressly focused on terrorism. It is focused on specific terrorists and their home bases. It's like declaring that we can;t defeat crime therefore we should leave the criminal alone. People, especially those who have never even seen the Middle East up close, have come to this ridiculous idea that there's no military solution and that only negotiation can solve our problem. When dealing with bullies the opposite is true. If you don't fight back with equal or greater force, you encourage your enemy to behave more viciously. The Tali-Ban proved this as did Al-Queda throughout the 90s when we pretended that they would just grow tired. Passive resistance only works when directed againt rule-of-law states. If people are unwilling to fight the fraction of humanity that is "evil," armed, organized, and determined to subjugate the rest, people will face even grimmer conflicts in the end. If people gravitated towards the terrorists in an immediate setting a few years back it was simply because Radicals merely crossed a line they had no problem crossing. An extreme few insurgencies have ever prevailed in history and most of those were against a self defeating military. We have a history of fighting insurgencies (which use terrorist tactics) and winning. From the Barbary Pirates to the Phillipines and on to Iraq.
Myth 2: "
For every terrorist you kill, you breed 10 more. They multiply exponentially." Al-Queda has been wrecked throughout the world. The military was told by plenty of couch potatos that killing Osama Bin Laden, Zarqawi, Saddam Hussein or Omar and everyone else that they will become martyrs or that "10 more" will rise. Nobody fights to avenge Hussein and few in this fight are any of the terrorists we started out killing. The truth is that killing religious fanatics is the only way to end their influence. Killing them is the only way to prove they lack divine protection. The vast majority of everyone we have fought since 9/11 have been local fighters confused about who their enemy was. After enough Muslim slaughter the Sunni in Iraq (and those that traveled to slaughter) recognized Al-Queda for what they were. Afghani recognize what Al-Queda. And as Pakistanis suffer in the North with no Al-Queda support given, they too will recognize truth.
Another myth is that we create terrorists by fighting back. This is the heaviest load of crap coming out of Washington. The vast majority of all fighting inside Iraq and Afghanistan are local. They aren't terrorists and have no designs to deal with issues outside of their borders. In fact, most of their conflicts are about each other. With Iraq behind us and Afghanistan on the way towards a mend, there will little to no terrorists looking across the ocean. They have been bludgeoned. Even the vast majority of Islam knows who their enemy is.
You can't convince a religious fanatic that all he believes in is wrong. You can't force him to compromise his core religious beliefs by saying please. And you can't convince him that what he considers an afront against his god is now OK. The vast majority of all people touting these myths (and many more) have no idea what they are talking about. They are just repeating what they heard from others who have never seen the region or even understands the region's history, much less our own military's history.