Intelligently Fighting Terrorism

Many people (myself included) are a little miffed when asked, �What is the best method of fighting terrorism? How would you go about it?�. Terrorism is such an ambiguous, nebulous thing. It�s not like a tangible object that you can put your finger on. Terrorism is all around us and amongst us. It�s in practically every country and major city. You can�t just bomb each location where it�s known to exist. You�d end up bombing yourself.

Back in the days of the Cold War we at least knew who the enemy was. Not only ethnically, but physically by it�s location on the planet. We knew where to aim our missiles and drop our bombs; we had a distinct target. We also used the same weapons and tactics, and it was an apples to apples confrontation.

Now, it�s nothing like that. It�s more of an apples to oranges struggle, with the enemy bombarding us from every direction. Our old cold war weapons of mass destruction no longer shield us from a silent, unknown and deadly enemy. There is no �central� command to assault. Our enemy may be next door.

There is one place we can look to for help, though. It�s not a definitive answer to the problem, and is not the solution that will suddenly make everyone in the world content and lacking the motivation to become a �terrorist�. However, it may be a means to more intelligently wage war against those who seek to destroy us. It�s akin to military strategy, but is a bit more so. It�s a mathematical and computer data mining technique of predicting human behavior based upon given criteria. It�s called Order Theory.

It begins with a large database on a group of known terrorists. It analyzes common factors amongst the group, like phone calls, political affiliations, places to worship, etc. and produces a behavioral model. It involves decision-making equations and computes things like �feelings�. In the end, one can plug in certain actions taken and predict how the enemy might react. The process can become rather involved. It�s not �perfect�, but is a surprisingly accurate technique. It�s a lot like what Generals do now, but is contained in a computer program. Brilliant generals are few in number and far in between. A computer program can be developed that is efficient and cheap overall.

My explanation is quite lacking, but the following link may shed more light on the method and where it�s currently at:

story.news.yahoo.com.../ap/20041010/ap_on_sc/math_against_terror

As we push on with this �War on Terror�, perhaps machines and mathematicians will become increasingly involved. One thing�s for sure, we can�t just use brute force to fight this war; it�s much bigger and more complicated than current capabilities to fight. Perhaps devising a mind shift would be more successful. According to terror expert, Gordon Woo, "Terrorism is a thinking man's game �".

Just throwing this out to see if anyone has any ideas regarding the topic �

A key factor in combating terrorism is not fueling the Jihad.

Bushblows,

Not sure what you mean, but it's not meant as a way to fuel the movement; it's meant as a means to defuel it ...

Originally posted by bushblows
A key factor in combating terrorism is not fueling the Jihad.

I see, look the other way and they well stop killing people