Senior Obama officials predict the future, explicitly state war on terrorism to last 10-20 yrs

War as a declared conflict entailing expulsion or occupation of a foreign entity is always finite. The term "War on Terror" defines a standing policy whereby terrorist actors or sponsoring entities are criminalized and either apprehended and prosecuted or otherwise eliminated. As terrorists and some of their sponsoring ideologies have no plans to conclude their operations any time soon, neither should any sovereign, safety-minded country with the means and mandate to stop them.

 

I think the war on terror will last until the US has exhausted itself economically or a very strong majority of Americans understands the roots of foreign terrorism directed at the US and can overcome some powerful corporations that profit from war.

We routinely see that the terrorists hate us due to our policies. http://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2013/05/17/boston-suspects-writing-on-the-wall/

in the fall of 2004 in an unclassified study published by the Pentagon-appointed U.S. Defense Science Board. Directly contradicting what President George W. Bush was saying at the time, the board stated:

“Muslims do not ‘hate our freedom,’ but rather, they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the longstanding, even increasing support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, and the Gulf States.”

Individual terrorists reveal this. See the surviving bomber scrawling on the side of the boat that he lied dying I that he and his brother were motivated due to our unjust policies in Afghanistan and Iraq. One of the guys who planned to to set off a bomb in Times Square originally came from the part of Pakistan we routinely fire drones on etc

 

Nice slogan. What the heck does that actually mean? Letting the Iranians, Russians, and Chinese do what they want in the Middle East?

 

Isolationism is what let WWII happened. Our foreign policies include nosing into everyones affairs. You can't have global peace by sitting on the sidelines. Appeasing a few fanatical people will only lead to aggressive dictatorships across the globe.

 

Isn't the United Nation an attempt to not let this happen? Why do we need to nose into everyone affairs. A few here and there that make sense and that want us to be there (S Korea, Japan, etcs), but everyone?

 

They, in your words, predicted the future. Perhaps you don't seem to understand this, but when people predict the future, they can be wrong. If what you say transpires and we elect some Carter/Paul idiot, then these guys would be wrong.

No, seriously, this topic is ridiculous. Elected officials make a prediction about the future, it happens all the time. But now that they make a prediction that you disagree with, you go all "How can they make such a prediction? Things could completely change!"

The UN is a giant club for diplomats to get together and talk in a forum beyond country to country. That's all it is. It's an important role - a lot of the bullcrap of the European nations leading up to the Great War could have been averted if they had had a place for all their diplomats to talk about affairs as opposed to the difficulties of needing to host some conference like the Berlin Conference every time something came up. But nothing more.

 

Conflicting generalities in here. Which is it?

 

I understand what you are saying, but it is all really a "best guess" and based on the past. Is it possible that a candidate will emerge that will INSIST on complete withdraw? Is it possible that the American people will suddenly refuse to have any influence in the Middle East? Sure it is possible, but it is not likely and the administration will prepare for the most likely outcome.

It is possible that a Ron Paul is elected? Yes, but when was the last time such a thing happened?

 

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Stop listening to John McCain.

 

Terrorism has been going on long before 9/11 and will continue to go on for the foreseeable future. Doesn't take an expert to see that it won't be going away anytime soon. And if we ever elect a guy who says he'll end the war on terror, he will just change his tune once the next terror attack happens.

 

What continues to metastasize is our war mongering foreign policy.