David Cameron is banging on again about military action 'to make us safe'. What planet is he on?
Let us suppose that our brilliant army, navy and air force, backed by our nuclear arsenal, manage to wipe out Daesh/ISIS in both Syria and Iraq.
Are we to believe that, after celebrating our brave success, we will be immune from terrorism?
George Bush and Tony Blair thought that by invading some Arab country and 'shocking and awing' them into submission, we could somehow avenge the terrorist attack on New York and make the West safe from terrorism. They were wrong. Terrorism has increased. Why do we think military action will succeed now?
We are a county with the military might we needed half a century ago.
Daesh/ISIS are a terrorist organisation with the military might they need now.
We might defeat them if we used the same tools they have, but we don't want to use soldiers with guns and tanks. Our public wouldn't stand for it.
We might defeat them if we used our nuclear weapons, but we don't want to do that.
So we use the things we have that they don't - air power, missiles, drones. And those tools won't defeat a terrorist group who can melt into the general population.
All military action will do is satisfy the politicians' need to do something and the terrorist leaders' need to have an enemy.
Terrorists are clever. They strike when we are not expecting it, at targets who are not prepared for it.
We will only defeat them by being cleverer than they are and pre-empting those strikes. To do that, we must accept more surveillance, more action against those who indoctrinate.
Terrorism is the new way of fighting. We need to resist it with a new form of defence.
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