[Lanny_MacDonald]

Originally posted by CaptainCrunch@Sep 12 2004, 06:06 PM
I didn't want to get involved in this string

Told myself it would be better if I stayed out of it

But I have to ask,

When you talk about the use of diplomacy to deal with the terrorist problem, were you talking about using diplomacy with the companies that house them, or the terrorists themselves.

If its the terrorists itself, and you open up pandora's box and give in on thier demands, you will never see a agreement reached. Israel tried to trade land for peace and all they got was an increase in terrorist activity.

Spain changed thier government and withdrew thier troops from Iraq due to the terrible bombings in that country, and all it did was embolden the terrorists/

You can't negotiate with these people, they aren't about that. Hell Yassir Arafat was given a nobel peace prize and a key position in the peace process in Palestine, and all that he's done in between stuffing his starving peoples money into Swiss Back Accounts, is to become involved in terrorist activities again

Or are you looking at the countries involved in funding, and housing terrorists? Because that dosen't work until you provide an example of why they should comply.

After 9/11 the American's tried to work with the Taliban, asking for Bin Laden to be handed over, all the Taliban did was refuse, the American's gave them time to comply and they still did nothing but stonewall. So the American's invaded.

The American's didn't get any kind of movement out of Iran, and Syria until after they dropped the hammer on Iraq.

In short form the more backwards religiously driven middleeast countries don't understand diplomacy without a prior show of force to show your intentions.

And you can't really bring the UN into that, because thier policies and work in the middle east have been fairly poorly conceived and poorly executed, and the UN is no longer a descive and strong figure anymore.

Good points Captain, but let me ask you, how do you defeat terrorism then? Its a battle of ideologies. To me the only way you defeat that is through education and the only way you establish educational institutions is through diplomacy. Any other ideas?