As much as some might like to go it alone...

Analysis: Lessons of Europe's history with terrorism, By Michael Goldfarb, GlobalPost, August 26, 2009

Worth reading. America's "Dirty Harry" tendencies here are counterproductive, because, in the end, you deal with everyone if you want the win.

(Via WPR Media Roundup)

Comments

[Petrer]

"They would say this because they have already been through long struggles against terrorism [rebellion, actually] and see their view not as appeasement, but resiliency."

This argument (which is based on poisoned "moral equivalency" post modern european thinking) hinges on the notion that these rebels respond to appeasement...and in the IRA case, the people did (so I am wrong as far as those rebels are concerned). But applying this to Al-Qaida, the Taliban, or (less so) Hamas and Hezbollah is simply poisoned thinking because...well that little thing called women and globalization!

One of my pet peeves is moral equivalence...don't get me wrong, I understand the situation in Europe. But I knew kids in college that would use the appeasement argument in the face of terrorism as it is our fault for being greedy capitalist pigs who don't listen to Noam Chomsky (I am not making a caricature!). And then I get called the one who is biased...oh man...and then people would praise them for being SO SMART!

[Javaid Akhtar]

Kids at college are always against 'somebody' big dealing with somebody 'smaller' because they've just left the nest and are projecting their hormonal anger that can't express itself from the parantal power structure that they've just left.That way they become natural agents for change.And they get over it very quickly once they age.

Taliban , Hamas , and Hezbollah have ethincally and geographicaly defined constituencies...unlike AQ which just has a few funding pathways at its roots.