Monday, August 4, 2008

Opinions On the Rand Study And On How To Fight The "War On Terror"

From Pajamas Media:

Should Cops or Generals Spearhead the War on Terror?

An Associated Press article quotes Seth Jones, a RAND political scientist and author of a study on fighting terrorism, as saying that intelligence operations and police work, not military operations, are the most effective tools against terrorism.

terrorists should be perceived and described as criminals, not holy warriors, and our analysis suggests there is no battlefield solution to terrorism. … The United States has the necessary instruments to defeat al-Qaida, it just needs to shift its strategy.

One component of that strategy would be to end the “War on Terror” and transform it into a police action. The AP writes that “nearly every ally, including Britain and Australia, has stopped using ‘war on terror’ to describe strategy against the group headed by Osama bin Laden and considered responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 suicide attacks at the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.” Why shouldn’t America do the same?

Read more ....

From Captain's Journal:

Another Disappointing RAND Counterinsurgency Study

In RAND Study on Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan we disapproved of the small footprint model for counterinsurgency advocated by Seth G. Jones. Another RAND study has been issued entitled How Terrorists Groups End: Lessons for Countering al Qa’ida, by Seth G. Jones and Martin C. Libicki. The report is available for download, so the reader can study it later (or perhaps has already studied it). But the summary statement reads thusly:

Read more ....

More Comments And Opinions

Analysis: Just the beginning? -- Daily Times
Ending ‘The War On Terror’ -- Politics Or Poppycock
RAND institute's take on Iraq -- U.S. message Board
Countering Insurgency in the Muslim World – New Study by RAND Corporation -- ISN Board
The RAND Study on Insurgency in the Muslim World -- Religion And Politics

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