Terror war 'could last 50 years'

[AGENDA21]

The war on terror could last up to 50 years, a senior UK intelligence officer has warned.

Speaking at a US Government sponsored conference in Las Vegas, Superintendent Stuart Harrison offered a rare insight into the intelligence community.

He said "remorseless effort" was needed before the world returned to normal.

Superintendent Harrison, a counter-terrorism expert, was at the conference to share the UK's experiences in dealing with al-Qaeda.

'Bigger than imagined'

Security forces on both sides of the Atlantic have been forced to reassess their way of working following the 11 September terror attacks on the US.

Superintendent Harrison outlined how the UK had reorganised its counter-terrorism efforts in the face of what he described as a new threshold of threat.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3388797.stm

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. The endless bogeyman.

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." H.L. Mencken

[Nimrod2005]

2. Why not say 500 years? Every person/country/civilization...

have always had enemies throughout life and before we were made here, animals have them too...If we continue to chose to have enemies, then we will have them forever and ever and ever...

Jews/Moslims? 1000s of years of conflict...
Sunni/Shia? 1000s of years...
East and West? same...
Cats and dogs?
Lions and deer? same...

The big will always feast on the small, the strong will crush the weak...etc.

you can go on and on...

[ProfessorGAC]

10. Yeah, Why Not Just Eternal?

How does it simply end in 50 years? All of a sudden, it will just end? If it can go on for 50 years, then it could just as easily be infinite. This is just stupidity to think a timeline can be predicted in a "war" against an idea.
The Professor

[Nimrod2005]

17. Bingo!!! Sounds like a professor to me.......nt

[Warren Stupidity]

3. This is such bullshit

I think after this long and dismal week that I have reached some new depth of despair over our situation. I really don't see any way we are getting out of this anytime soon. The texas oil mafia has succeeded beyond their wildest dreams: they have established a one party tyranny, they have their endless war to justify anything they do, they control the media, they appear to have 30-40% of the population enthralled, and the remainder confused. Perhaps 5-10% of us are even aware of what the situation is. Our "opposition party" is so compromised, between the confused and the outright moles, that I think it is entirely possible that we could win the 06 congressional elections AND NOTHING MUCH WOULD CHANGE. Oh I'll enthusiastically work my ass off to make that happen, I'm just going to do so with my eyes wide open. It is going to take a complete breakdown of our economic system, or perhaps a stunning a dramatic military disaster, before anything really changes.

[dogday]

4. This is an endless effort

terra is carte blanche invasion into any country you chose....

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

7. Endless bullshit until they are called on it

And made to answer.

Clinton dealt with terrorism more effectively without having to scrap the 4th amendment or unilaterally invade other countries and occupy them.

September 11, 2001 was a terrible day but it did not change a single line of the US Constitution.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

5. With the Cold War over, the RW needs a bogey man

They can't continue to steal from the poor and give to the rich without a distraction.

[mrbill]

6. Yep, those scary commies were a lot more fun......

must have bogeyman....

[seemunkee]

8. Can you ever win a war against a concept?

Can you even fight a war against a concept?

[Tesha]

9. Optomist!

More like several thousand, based on how long grudges
seem to last in the Middle East.

Tesha

[90-percent]

11. 50 years?

the way the United States has behaved in Iraq will insure we'll be fighting and frightened by terrorism for at least 500 years!

Almost like we're INTENTIONALLY trying to create a boogey man? Gee, why on earth would we want to do something that stupid?

-85%

[shain from kane]

12. Depends on what the definition of "normal" is.

From the excerpt, "He said "remorseless effort" was needed before the world returned to normal."

My observation is that "normal" is people killing people over religion and politics.

[onehandle]

13. Global warming could kill our agriculture by then.

Teeming masses fighting over the rapidly dying oceanlife on every coastline will make the "terror war" seem pretty meaningless.

[Tesha]

14. "Soylent Green" (NT)

[Xenotime]

15. Terror would stop if * is impeached.

[triguy46]

20. It is certainly worth testing

[jsamuel]

16. McCarthyism

[coalition_unwilling]

18. There is no "War on Terror." There is a "War for Empire"

It's the latter that will take 50 years and probably involve at least limited use of nuclear weapons before it is settled.

My personal feeling is that Iraq was\is Bush's Stalingrad and that if\when he attacks Iran and they activate their 850,000-man army (just across the border), we'll respond with the same nuclear strategy we would have used had the Soviet Union invaded West Germany. (Remember we never agreed to a "No First Use" measure.) That is, when Iran threatens to roll up our forces in Iraq, we will respond with tactical and even strategic nuclear weapons.

Of course, in practice, this means BushCo is willing to sacrifice the entirety of the 140,000 U.S. troops still occupying Iraq. Because any Iraqi not now in the resistance will join as soon as Bush uses nukes on Iran. So we could face the real possibility of 140,000 American POWs or "hostages" if the Iranians decide that Geneva Conventions are "quaint and obsolete."

And that's without all the unknowns that attend any military conflagration. For example, oil could go to $500\barrel, if straits of Hormuz become unnavigable.

[triguy46]

19. Just think

How quickly we have been able to take the acts of a few and use them to turn the world against us. How much more poorly could this hand have been played. If there is ever a history written, it will be about how * took an incident of worldwide tragedy, a time when we cuold have garnered worldwide support and how he frittered it away in a chase for unfettered power, ego, self serving business development. If its lasts 50 years, its all on * shoulders.