Reason for Pessimism

Submitted by Edward Halper (United States), Jun 21, 2007 at 01:05

You may be right, LDC. I hope you are. But fighting suicidal American terrorists would be a lot more difficult than any sort of conventional war. It's a lot easier to tear down than to build. There wars against the Indians were confined to the frontiers, whereas a war against terrorists would be mostly urban. This enemy doesn't wear uniforms and it is highly determined.

My thought is that Americans are too complacent about our ability to win--so complacent that we don't even realize that this is a struggle for our existence. I think that a lot of the criticism of the war on terror comes from people who don't see the threat. Most people don't see the threat because they see only our overwhelming conventional force. There are others, and you may be among them, who do not see the threat because they are confident that gun owning Americans would resist.

Think about how the psychology of terrorism works. They don't necessarily come after you; they commit random violence so that everyone lives in fear. When the fear becomes unbearable, people are ready to make concessions. Your gun will not help against a car bomb, nor will you be much good if you lose the support of Americans. Of course, we'd hate to see this happen and hopefully it will not. But if it does, it will not be easy and we may not win.

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