FIGHTING TERRORISM

There are many ways to stop terrorism that we don't seem to be doing. One is realism and another one would be our gaining better understanding of the enemy. I might mention better human intelligence and less a reliance on satellites and desk bound analysts and more enemy infiltration. Changing our dependence on the oil from the Middle East seems logical to me. Less SUVs on US roads (and less ads on TV) and more taxes on gas would help the out flow of dollars from our pockets to the terrorists’. We could legalize and treat as a disease heroin use worldwide and tax its consumption, regulate users and take away the black market that feeds the terrorists hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The federal government could get out of bed with the defense industry and regulate where the arms go when they leave the factories in the US. We could also stop using the gift of our military training, arms and money to coerce smaller countries to back us on issues that are unimportant to there generally corrupt leaders. The benefactors of our largesse often have used the weapons to kill their own people, their neighbors’ people or they resell the arms in the black market to terrorists and international criminals. Believe it or not the terrorists retrieve money by buying cigarettes in the US and reselling them illegally around the world on street corners and kiosks generating millions of dollars to help them fight us. We could better regulate the sale of cigarettes and dry this source of money to the terrorists. The diamond trade should be infiltrated with spies. A lot of the transfer of funds is done with diamonds by the terrorists around the world. Some on-the-ground intelligence work there could keep money and power from terrorist organizations.

Opposing people who oppose your views is a waste of energy. This type of in-fighting also breeds witch hunts, fundamentalism, religious fanaticism, fascism, censorship and racism, to name a just a few of the symptoms of self righteousness.