VPILF!

[G.Irish]

What combats terrorism? Can someone tell me? please?

1. Undermine support for their cause in the communities they live in. The common people don't want to be blown up either so you make sure the common people are on your side by attacking terrorists/insurgents but keeping collateral damage low. Help their communities and they're more likely to help you. Use locals to help you take out terrorists.

If you remove popular support for those who would use terror then it makes it difficult for them to recruit, and difficult for them to survive. Dropping cluster bombs in populated errors is an example of how NOT to do this.

2. Freeze their financial assets. We've largely done this.

3. Do not add fuel to the fire of the causes they rally around. Many in the Islamic world feel that the United States unfairly supports their common enemy in Israel. Not saying we shouldn't ally with Israel but we shouldn't support the Israelis when they're wrong. We also shouldn't endorse a double standard with Israel and the rest of the Middle East.

Another major cause radicals use is that the West is invading their holy lands. Thus, don't unnecessarily step on their toes or invade their lands. In the case of Afghanistan they housed the Taliban that supports, finances, and trains Al Qaeda. We have a legitimate cause for being there. In Iraq none of the reasons we gave for invading were true and if you were Arab it is just further proof of the West's desire to subjugate the Middle East and steal their oil.

4. Use unconventional forces to capture and kill terrorists where it will hurt them most. Instead of pulling Special Forces off Afghanistan to fight in Iraq they should have been allowed to stay and cut off the head of the snake.

5. Maintain credibility in the international community. The current terrorism problem spans across many countries so we are going to need other countries' help to combat them. Antagonizing our allies and lying to make our case undermines our credibility and makes it less likely other countries will work with us to help us attack terrorists. In Gulf War I we had a strong coalition of allies to help us do the job. This time around we had token participation from our allies because they simply didn't believe us.

6. Use our human intelligence to infiltrate and disrupt terrorist cells. That is what the CIA is for. Human intelligence also means we need more linguists on the ground so that deployed units can gather and act on intel better.

7. Clean up the criminal intelligence failures in our stateside organizations. There were whistleblowers about several red flags we had before 9/11 in the FBI that might have averted the attack had the agency done their job.

This also means untangling the silly no-fly lists that are all but useless because they are used so poorly. Stop wasting resources on security theater.