Armchair Generals Club

Generals, welcome to to the war on terrorism.

Your mission is to set your strategy for winning this war.

Given all of the information available, and your own expertise on global politics, terrorism, Islamic fascism, military strategy and the growing threats against western society. Please post your replies to this AboveTopSecret thread.

Tell us how we can win this war!

The ultimate objective is real lasting global peace.

redirect a couple of trillion earmarked for militery uses into global poverty alleviation........thats it really. no poverty, no terrorism.

Perhaps it would help Pieman.
Stop the big corporations raping natural resources of other nations whilst propping up corrupt leaders who subject their own people to brutality.
If another nation has something you need or want, buy or trade for it. After all, just how much profit is needed? Greed is the root of most of the trouble in the world, plain and simple.

Stop having our (the US/UK's) Foreign Policy directed by Israel, stop BUILDING terrorist groups ourselves, and take on the Corporates.

As for that few trillion, pass it here, i'll.... look after it... yeah....

start lining the gas tanks of american vehicles with lead so as to facilitate the use of radioactive fuels.

Firstly I would combine precision-guided munitions technology with aid air-drops. Pack water/rice/maize/etc food-aid into 2000lb bomb-casings and target them on insurgents' and rebels' positions and vehicles. Not only do you eliminate the target with a 1-ton flour-bomb, but also provide food for starving cililians and have no dangers from dud munitions or the toxic-side effects to the environment...

Realize that violence in response to violence, will not end the cycle of hate.

You must deal with the root cause.

You cannot "win" a war on terrorism.

From an American's POV.

Step 1: Recognize that a war on terror can never truly be won; the best we can hope for is stability and defensibility. Rename the war on terror to just plain national security. Remove the "terror alert" public system, as nobody conceivably plans their life around it and it only seems to serve as a fear factory for furthering the administration's agenda.

Step 2: Wait out the current administration in its entirety. While a smart person should never completely trust a career politician, politics are an unfortunate necessity of our world thus we need someone to fill these roles. However, our current administration, from the President all the way down to handpicked yes-people, have proven that not only can we not trust them with their power, but that they will abuse said power regardless of constitutional law.

The president has less than two years remaining in his term, and short of unlikely future scenarious such as a military coup or some revolution prompted by martial law, our only option is waiting the administration out and voting the right people in.

Step 3: Remove all U.S. forces from Iraq and Afghanistan. Coalition forces would follow. Now that Kofi's retiring, we can hope for less nepotism, fiscal abuse, and related scandal as the U.N. will take over the rebuilding process.

Step 4: The Department of Homeland Security needs to begin spending some of its millions on actually securing the homeland. Secure all borders, fortified with walls, fences, and guards. That may sound cruel, but the damage to our reputation has already been done, regardless of which set of individuals we'd like to blame it on. This has fueled bonafide terrorists for the last several years, and let's not forget the "illegal" in illegal alien; if you have to sneak into the country, you're not wanted. It doesn't matter how things were done one or two hundred years ago; this is now.

Further, port inspection needs to step up well past the currently pathetic inspection rate of all incoming cargo. 100% is a tough goal to reach, but 2% isn't even trying.

Step 5: The hardest part, keep our new administration in check. Remind them that their role is to serve us, not to play international cop. If they begin to stray down the wrong path, do not hesitate to speak up and spread the word.

i havn't seen a General's post yet.

General's are the top officer in campaigns with a purpose to kill people & break things.

other historical Generals include Aeitus (Roman),Antipater (Macedonian),
Constantine (Rome), Hannibal (Carthagenian)...

in real simple language, the mess in Iraq should have been conducted another way;

the old population centers, would be allowed to disintegrate into ghetto hellholes
Even as the Army Engineers along with contractors would be constructing new fortress towns, with strict control & screening/surveillance of the 'residents' who elect
to relocate to these 'secure' towncenters.
An integrated network of sky-cams & face recognition monitors, explosive & chemical sensor monitors would permeate the streets & buildings.
The peacefull over time residents would earn privledges and freedoms over and above the basic humanitarian conditions as it becomes clear that insurgents, terrorists, Jihadists, etc, are not active in their community.

in the interim, the old cities, would be swept by squads of soldiers who would nutralize any person with even traces of explosives or actual weapons at their disposal (regardless if the arms are pleaded as only for self-protection)
The 'General' would impose a "No Quarter Policy"

the indigenous population would surely start to 'police' itself, as a self protection strategy
...& gladly wish to enter the 'secure' fortress-type towns which run day-to-day like a military Basic-Training facility, instead of being in the lawless and terrorist infested cities of the old Saddam & Baath Iraq.

thats just a starter, there are many, many, humanitarian & civil ways to impose the General's will on the 'temporarily subjugated population' and to clean-out the destructive elements, in a cause for the eventual betterment for the whole.

There is the general staff, Congress, even NATO to provide over-sight over this hypothetical Arm-Chair General's policies and actions

Originally posted by pieman
redirect a couple of trillion earmarked for militery uses into global poverty alleviation........thats it really. no poverty, no terrorism.

Actually I think I agree with you. It is difficult to be sure, but if everyone on Earth were living a comfortable life I wonder what the chances are they'd still go to war with one another? I doubt we'll ever find out though. How exactly would you end poverty everywhere though?

i propose we start a worldwide lottery where 1 in twenty win 200 dollars every week.
use twenty numbered balls and assign every person who wishes to participate a number, then you draw one numbered ball and everyone with that number gets 200 dollars.
in first world countries you could charge ten dollars for a number, thus making it likely participants will finance themselves and then charge on a sliding scale according to the average wage of the country.
also this allows each countries economy to be stimulated to a level that will lead to a leveling of the living standards over say fifty years and on a need basis, the 200 dollars would be most stimulating to the economys of the poorest countries.

okay, perhaps not, well maybe.....stands a better chance than prisons mascerading as secure townships under the watchful eye of big brother anyway.



[edit on 1-10-2006 by pieman]

Originally posted by pieman
redirect a couple of trillion earmarked for militery uses into global poverty alleviation........thats it really. no poverty, no terrorism.

If only it were that simple

Interesting replies.

If, as some have said here, (we can't win the war on terrorism)

Then tell us how we can end it in a way that is good for all sides involved.

Is there a way to ease the anger and hatred that has grown in this war?

A way to right wrongs?

Or should we look at the option of total destruction of all enemies?

What is the best, most realistic and peaceful strategy?

If we are to end the fighting, are we lowering our guard? inviting attacks? showing weakness?

Remember they are reading your replies!

UM_Gazz, I'm pretty steadfast in saying that a "war on terrorism", no matter how it is phrased, can never be brought to an actual end. As long as there is a majority, there will always be a dissenting minority, and among the dissenters there will always be extremism.

This isn't something you can bring under control. All we can really do is stop giving
people a flagrant reason to resort to extreme action. Completely destroying an enemy of this nature is a pipe dream; this enemy isn't bound by the Geneva Convention or any law. He does as he pleases, and the fact that our current war is unlawful at its core does not help the situation.

If we end the fighting, but increase the guard, imo, we will be a step closer to stopping the craziness.

Audit the Federal Reserve and every single agency of the U.S. Government.
No exceptions!

Follow the money trails and find out exactly what these criminals have been up to.

Anyone caught abusing the public trust goes to prison for treason.

I'm pretty sure the money they find could solve many of the world's problems.

I would devout more resources to the war in Afghanistan and expand the war into Pakistan to ensure that the insurgents have no place to re train and re group.
Any troops that fought in any theatre of war will have undergone specialty training for example troops that are fighting in Afghanistan would have undergone counter insurgency and moutain warfare training.

I would recommend to political leaders that Iraq be partition into tribal regions this would help to stop the drain on resources that Iraq has become. I would also recommend that the CIA gets a major overhaul to ensure that more accurate intel comes from sourcers on the ground rather then second guessing satellite photos.

An econmic blockade would be imposed on North Korea this would ensure that we see the end of the failed state.

1. Fire every congressman, and the current administration.

2. Dramatically pull all troops out of the middle-east and on live
International televisin threaten to turn the region into a radioactive
crater if they don't do as they're told.

3. Kill every extremeist leader in the iddle-east, create seperations of
church and state in the middle-eastern countries.

4. Forbid an version of Islam accept a universal peaceful one to be
taught or practiced.


I all honesty I'm not very good at general type stuff, I'm a much better
scientist and politician.

you guys are going about this the wrong way. lead lined gas tanks are the way to go! do you realize that for all the ICBMs in the world, not one has been test fired with an actual nuke on it? how do we know that they'll even work if we need them? every country with nuclear capable ICBMs should test fire them to insure they work.....just pick the middle eastern country of your choice, and fire one missile per country. now, i realize that probably half of those missiles will hit israel, but the fallout will take care of the rest of the problem.

Put all funds into colonizing Mars and then get the hell outta Dodge.

Get out of dodge (iraq), spend more money on intelligence and give our boys better gear.
Then make an official assasination team aimed at killing enemies of the UK , (eye for an eye deal) then buy me a large house in southern france with a 82 inch plasma HD TV and Satalite for it, oh and a beer fridge.