The Economist had a striking cover today, a skull and crossbones filled with names of terrorist related terms. What struck me about this article was that it mentions President Obama stating that al-Qaeda was "on the path to defeat," and yet we see it is growing in tactics, technologies and training power.
The article cover caught my eye but the story stood out as it gives a solid account of how the al-Qaeda is growing and a shocking fact it gave was that "...Syrian Free Army has been progressively displaced by better-organised and better-funded jihadist groups that have direct links with al-Qaeda. Western intelligence estimates reckon such groups now represent as much as 80% of the effective rebel fighting force."
The question in my mind is not whether or not we react to this mounting terrorist resurgence, but how will we respond that will allow for empathy building and finding commonalities that might end such radical hateful ideology. Is it supporting troops in other countries and giving them technologies to fight al-Qaeda as this article discusses? How do we find commonalities in any war that allow for dialogue, empathy and understanding as the basis for fighting terrorism without fighting at all? It is more of an empathic question and less military focused. I believe radical propaganda needs to be replaced with grassroots groups that open dialogue between nations. I don't know exactly what this approach looks like, but I hope as we become even more globally connected we become just that, more connected.
See the article here:
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21586832-west-thought-it-was-winning-battle-against-jihadist-terrorism-it-should-think-again
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