How long do you think the War on Terror will last?

How long do you think the "War on Terror" will last? Can you see an end in sight? If not, do you think NSA spying on Americans is here to stay? Do you think it will be expanded to include all Americans all the time (not that it probably isn't already)? I mean, how can we really trust them Arab-Americans? Or those Arab-American sympathizers? Or those commie-sympathizers? I can see it now. If you pro-bush Americans let this happen now, you are in for a world of hurt down the road.

 

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lol....
i dont think dubbya has any thoughts of "exit strategy" in iraq, and i think that the draconian measures taken domestically will stay in place until there is some kind of radical political revolution (in the senate of course)

 

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As long as the Bush Administration is in power we will be fighting the War on Terror. It's impossible to say exactly how long, but while Bush is in power we won't see the light of freedom. NSA spying is a very bad thing for people who have political ideals to hide. I can't say exactly how long, but it won't end anytime soon unless America takes a blow so destructive that either:

a) We lose our will to fight
b) We use all of our resources to take down the perpetrators
c) We pull another half-assed Iraq scheme where we decide to occupy a country "harboring terrorists", if by terrorists you mean oil.

AmishRakeFight

 

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How long did the Cold War last? Seems to be a similar thing to me.

 

The "War on Terror" will never end. Instead, it will eventually (someday) become more like a normal police effort. As the various countries all over the world finally reach their saturation point with terrorists, they will melt down into something similar to the Mafia. Groups of organized hoods.

Where things are now, most countries take immediate action when a strike occurs inside their boundaries. They make a serious, concerted effort to find the ones that did it. But after a while, many of them slowly start settling back into a more complacent mode. Once they push ( or get pushed) into making investigations an on-going affair - as with organized crime - they will eventually gain better control of it.

The current methodology in the U.S. of what appear to be some sort of shotgun approach to "spying" will come under ever-increasing fire/pressure until it, too, becomes restrained. Again, it will become much more like it is now when going after those with suspected ties to organized crime.

The sad truth is that there has always been some form on terrorism everywhere. Like the Federal building in Oklahoma City, Olympic Park in Atlanta, abortion clinics in several cities and states, letters containing anthrax spores, and on and on. And I hasten to say, though, that it was nothing like it is now. But it will always be with us. We just need to find (and refine) better ways of dealing with it. The locked and sealed cockpit doors on planes seem to have an effect. There should be other effective thing that can be done - without spying on everyone in every country all the time. Bad guys usually exhibit patterns, for one thing, if the ordinary police force is attentive enough to notice them.

 

I agree with everything in your post except this. I'm not so sure that if we let the current encroachment on our Constitution go unchecked we will ever be able to reign it in again, at least not anytime soon. Not as long as the "War on Terror" or something similar is underway. If we let our Constitution be compromised now, for one minute, we may never be truly free again, imo.

 

perfectly said, cottontop3000.

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your avatar is the desktop of my pc..... space.com?

 

Oh, the war on terror has already come to a head and is going to be decreasing in intensity from now on. It will probably continue on at a reduced level for another decade to finteen years though. Technically though, it can not actually be over until non-national militant groups hostile to the west are all slain or otherwise robbed of their power to perform a substantial terroristic attack on american soil. This means basic maintenance actions will continue essentially forever.

 

Hello Cotton,

That's exactly what I was getting at. We won't let it go on. There's already a HUGE uproar about it all across the country and the politicos will have to do something very soon. If they don't, they know they won't be reelected - and nothing is more important to them than that!

 

When America destroys all of Israels enemies in the mideast .

 

Thank god you got banned

AmishRakeFight

 

How longs a piece of string?
How longs your nose cotton?
How long is the chinese wall?

Why dont you ask your president cotton, after all he started it, and you being in his christian crusading army, are part of the war on terror are you not, because you were not forced to enlist into the american army.

"NSA spying on Americans'
and what are you afraid of cotton, what have you to hide, hell the british government can spy on me all they want, they can even move in to if there cute enough & up for it.

Cotton you have to respect a country in order to trust its motives, i respect america & britain therefore, i have no problem with them spying on there nationals, i dont respect russia or china, so i do have a problem with them spying on there nationals.

i think its about time you respected your counrty & trusted it cotton, especially if you are in the army otherwise you are being a hypocrite.

 

Thanks, and I'm not sure where I got the avatar. Can't remember. I had to cut it down to size to fit on here though. To me, it's inspiring.

Part of me thinks, and all of me hopes, that you are right. The other part of me is a little worried about it. Worried that our attention will be diverted or subverted somehow. Neo-cons in particular and all politicians in general, I think, are getting too good at taking advantage of our short attention spans.

Thus, the reason I keep starting threads here at sciforums about the issue. I don't want this issue to be glossed over or marginalized, as bush's team is consistently trying to do. Hell, on "This Week with George Stephanopolous" this morning, they had the Deputy Director of National Intelligence, General Michael V. Hayden, former head of the NSA and real charismatic, likeable guy, you know, say that it wasn't true that according to the FISA act the NSA could listen first and get the warrant later (within 3 days). He said that wasn't true. I think that was an outright lie. Correct me if I am wrong. Doesn't FISA say that in instances when speed is a necessity, surveillance may be started immediately and the warrant gotten later?

Also, have you watched the FOX "news" channel lately? I make myself watch it, even though I know they are biased in favor of conservatives. I swear to whatever god there may be that they are nothing more than a neo-con spin machine now, on a par with the propaganda machines of the nazi propagandists of the second world war. The titles of their stories are outright directions to their audience telling the audience, in blatant form, what to say, do and think. And the other news channels, even PBS now (The Newshour with Jim Lehrer), don't keep their eye on the ball with regard to the big issues that are really at stake here, what is most important to the ideals of this nation. Have you noticed the shift to entertainment news and human interest stories recently? More and more, news is about money and ratings than performing a true PUBLIC service. This, imo, is the American public's fault as much as it is the fault of the greedy bastards in charge.

Yeah, I'll get off my soapbox for tonight. Sorry. How about them Steelers?

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You are saying american news channels are like nazi germany propaganda, LOL
What a insult to all american people, what they are saying jews should be killed, gays locked up & blacks are the inferior race.

Where do you dream these things up cotton are there subliminal messages on fox news, hidden from the eye, that only you can see cotton, telling you all these things.

Ive watched fox news, there a wrap them up in red white & blue news channel, but a nazi propaganda machine, come off it cotton, you have been watching the xfiles to much.

May i suggest you move to iran or north korea, if you want a more balanced & unbiased news reporting, & stop slagging your country off.

 

No end in sight, as long as the "Neo-Cons" and "Wahabbiists" both remain in power.

Catch Adam Curtis' "The Power of Nightmares" 3-part Documentary, and read over PNAC's agenda.

Ditto, the CFR and Trilat's.

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When one injects game theory into the discussion, one clear conclusion is that the US's "War on Terror" is a zero-sum, infinite game.

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I was just about to say the same thing. That's twice I've agreed with the Red Rodent. Of course the other issue was boobies.

 

In Wikipedia, is there one part of their entry that you think is most important concerning game theory?

 

Heya- Yeah, the description of "zero sum" is a succinct analogy of warfare, looked at as a winner takes the "spOILs of war" phenomenon, and the broader implication of the infinite game theory is that the game will exist only as long as the players.

There are two basic types of game (wrt to time): finite and infinite games. Finite games have a well defined objective (or objectives) and when the criteria are met the game ends. Infinite games, by contrast, have no "real" objectives- one plays for the sake of playing, and the objective isn't winning or losing- it is remaining in play.

Deeeeeep, huh? =)

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I was "hooked" on playing EverQuest and WoW for a little while.. MMORPG's are kinda like "infinite games"- one doesn't really "win" or "lose" in either game; only PvP and PvE contests- the objective is abstract accrual or wealth, influence or power for your avatar, and for them to "survive" (lol, by shelling out whatever 10 pounds or twenty bucks buys one per month).

Cheers

 

Kill 100s of thousands of US soldiers in Iraq and watch the magic.

 

certainly if US is not Nuked anytime soon.