BoingBoing has a link to an research study just released by the RAND corp. looking at how terrorist groups have been defeated in the past (http://www.boingboing.net/2008/07/29/to-destroy-al-qaeda.html).
According to the study only 7% of terrorist group that have been defeated since 1968 were stopped through military efforts. Effective policing and politics accounted for about 40% each in being effective at stopping terrorist groups.
This graph is amazing.
It is so crazy to me that people believe that the only option we have to make America safer is to spend a few trillion dollars invading other countries and killing everyone there that disagrees with us.
Whether or not you support these wars on principle is immaterial; fighting wars to stop terrorist groups is a waste of money because it is ineffective.
This fact is should make sane people appose war for purely practical reasons, totally independent of your political or moral views on the matter.
For some fascinating insights into why the US behaves in such irrational ways (and why we spend at least half our annual budget making war) check out the movie “Why We Fight“.
InfiniteWorld 