Alternatives To War

[mburbank]

Yeah, I know, I was just being all flippant and shit.

Seriously, though, if you're talking about some very small scale criminal activity by a discreet gang, sure, force can be employed to wipe out, imprison or forcibly disable every criminal in say, a Pirate fleet. But while you might wipe out the Medelin cartel with a private army, I don't think you can do shit about the drug trade. Similarly, If the size of the terrorist group is large enough, and if it's goals and ideals can be passed like the flu, I think your chances of productively dealing with it via warfare approach zero. I can't think of a historical example.

Killing bad guys may feel right. It may even be justice if you're very careful you don't kill a lot of folks who happento be standing next to bad guys. But it tends to make more bad guys.