Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: In the case of Japan, bringing them to surrender would certainly end the war, however here we could nuke 5 nations and still not bring the networks to an end.  Then for what purpose did you do it? Without states backing them, the networks would attrit and dry up. If you think states, and not indviduals and various organizations, are the primary backers of these groups you need to get your intel from better sources. How are the "indviduals and various organizations" getting their funds?  How are they getting the funds to the terrorists? I maintain that there will be very little, if any, real progress made in the war unless/until we show Syria, Iran, and any other states sponsoring the militant Islamic terrorists that we are SERIOUS about taking down state sponsors.  Apparently dismantling the Taliban didn't get the point across.

They get it from various bogus "charities", from outright theft, from wealthy arabs who are way too chickenshit to fight, from collections made at mosques where nobody questions what the donations made go to.

Funding terrorists is not that expensive when you really look at it, bank for the buck.

How many muslim charities right here in the US were shut down since 9/11 for funneling money to terrorists? If you think there are that many here, how many do you think are in Europe or in the muslim nations? What we shut down in our borders would just be a drop in the bucket compared to what exists all over the world.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: In the case of Japan, bringing them to surrender would certainly end the war, however here we could nuke 5 nations and still not bring the networks to an end.  Then for what purpose did you do it? Without states backing them, the networks would attrit and dry up. If you think states, and not indviduals and various organizations, are the primary backers of these groups you need to get your intel from better sources.

It is believed 3 Saudis are bankrolling the Iraqi insurgency.  We should take them out.  We took our 5 Saudi Princes about 4 years ago in response to 9/11, but I think we have backed off of that strategy, because some Saudi King probably called President Bush on the carpet over it.  In this type of warfare, one of the best things to do is cut off the enemy's money supply.