ISIS

[hollodero]

(11-10-2016, 01:08 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Sure the dead would rather be living, but:

“A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once. It seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”

Ask those that put their life on the line and you may get an answer other than "a waste".

Have you ever looked into the eyes of a child that has felt the biggest joy in their lives because you bring them an inflated ball?

The true gratitude in the elderlies eyes as you bring them medical aid to a injury they have been suffering through their whole lives?

The desire of a young girl that wants nothing more than to go to school?

Dirt poor farmers that will put on a feast for you because you bring them blankets?

The safety and freedom felt by a village as you occcupy their town?

Young men dying fighting for liberty is tragic, but it damn sure is not a waste.

But do they? Fight for "liberty" I mean. At this point, they sure believe it (I hope, otherwise you just cultivate cynicism), they might even help selected people (geographically selected people) in ways you described so enthusiastically. But in the end, every recent intervention resulted in more death and destruction then there was before.
Thoughts like that are nice, but if the strategy is failing, there is no good outcome in the bigger picture, not more people saved, but more killed with even more gruesome regimes. I agree with the sentiment above. Either you put in even much much more troops and finances and effort and all that, and are willing to sustain that effort for decades, or you let it be completely. Doing the first thing is politically impossible, and there would still be no guarantee of any success. But half-hearted attempts, connected with the belief all somehow will sort out quickly and the people will come around (which they don't) does more harm than good, and I'd say that's a fair summary of all recent US interventions. 

And talking about terror threats alone. The less you are actively involved, the less new hatred towards the western world will accumulate. Yeah, they hate each other instead, they kill each other instead, and as awful and gruesome as that is, maybe it's just the point that Islamic history has reached right now. What unites them is just hating the US, and that bond is not one you want to strengthen.