and somehow bringing troops home to secure our borders even more will make it easier for the "terrists" to get in here?? wtf?
His statement is perfectly accurate. If they wanted to get in here they could, otherwise we wouldn't have so many people bitching about how our open border with Mexico allows everyone from the hardworking Mexicans to the scary "evildoers" to come in with nukes. If they wanted to come in, they would. It's not hard. At all.
Fighting them there is not stopping them from coming here. Not one bit.
Is it impossible to enter, hell no. Is 50,000 new Pakistani, Syrian, Iranian "settlers" in Texas going to raise slightly more suspicion than the same in Iraq? Let's see they've been traveling unimpeded from Pakistan and Uzbekistan and Afghanistan across Iran into Iraq for in excess of 2000 years. It requires they get no airline ticket, it requires they get no passport, it requires nothing but the will to get in a truck, in a car, on a donkey or camel and ride. So yes, I'll stand by my statement that it's easier to sneak into Iraq. I pretty sure I have a little more experience in the region than many including you.
The *answer* is to alienate the extremists from their popular support. No popularity with the locals equals no recruits to blow themselves up for Allah, no money to operate, and less likelihood of operational security.
The answer is to win the battle of hearts and minds. That has always been the answer and will always be the answer. And it's kinda hard to do when you're meddling in their affairs, sitting on their holy lands, and refusing to distinguish between the sheep and the goats.
I could go into further detail, but really...why bother? Anyone here who actually understands the nuances already knows exactly where I'm coming from and you are either unable or (much more likely) unwilling to grasp the concept.
That's what you don't get for some reason. This isn't a movie where you're going to win the hearts and minds of the extremists. You're not going to "win" them over. The common peasant in the region will do as they've always done throughout history; they will side with the one who is advantageous to their needs at the time. The extremists understand the heavy hand and see compromise as a weakness to further use against you. I'm all for building schools, power plants and playing nice with the local man trying to make a life, but believing terrorists will leave you alone if you leave them alone won't work. I wish it would, but I've seen it first hand just as you have GS. How many will take water from you because they are thirsty, and then tell the insurgents where you are because they are hungry, want something else from them or because they know what will happen if they don't answer the questions being asked? How many insurgents will ask the peasant nicely for information they believe he has it, how do they deal with a peasant who doesn't play nice with them? It sucks for the peasant being pinched between the two sides, and I feel for them, I'm glad it's not me or my family feeling that pinch, but yes I still believe the military should be used there and our borders should be secured by the agency already empowered with that task.
As for understanding the nuances, I was working in the region before you had ever thought of being sent to it. I work with, eat with, live with, train them and been shot at with Muslims for a living 6-10 months a year every year and have for the last 9 years. I've been able to gain a little grasp of their culture working and living one on one with them in nine years in this AOR esclusively So please, don't play the holier than though intellectual card. One tour and a bunch of reading doesn't put you in the expert category; the same as all of my experience doesn't put me in it either. It does give me a real world understanding of the culture that can't be found in a book or learned in a classroom. Call me cynical, call me jaded, but don't tell me I don't understand the nuances of FID and unconventional warfare.
This is my final post in this one. PM me if you would like to further discuss it, but I won't engage in thinly veiled attacks in the thread with you.