Is the war on terror winnable? What would this look like?

If the War on Terror is able to be won, there would be no more terrorism. The world would be a much safer place because there would be no attacks on civilians and wars would be fought conventionally.

I know that this is pessimistic, but I do not think that the War on Terror can ever be won. I think that it is a noble goal but there is no way to completely  eradicate terror from the world. For one thing, the War on Terror is a war on a concept. Because there is no concrete enemy, there is no way to evaluate when the war has been won. Certain terrorist groups can be removed but terrorism as a concept will always be present.

I am planning on having a career that involves counterterrorism and national security.  It might seem weird that someone who wants to spend her life protecting her nation from future terrorist attacks doesn’t believe that the terrorist attacks will ever stop. I do think that it is possible to prevent terrorism, however, it will never truly be eliminated.

Research Topic

I just posted on the Wiki but I thought I’d describe my research paper topic a little bit here so it is easier to receive feedback from you guys!

 I am trying to research how the use of terrorist tactics in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has changed since the mandate period. In order to do this, I’m going to need to evaluate the goals behind the attacks and the extent to which these goals were met. Because there have been so many instances of terror since the beginning of the conflict, I will probably select a few major terrorist attacks and focus on those.

I’ve started researching a little bit and have already found so much information.  I think it will be a really interesting project!

This is the first time that I have ever kept a blog..I'm not entirely sure how to go about doing this but am excited to figure it out! That said, please bear with me as I get the hang of this.

I came across an interesting article this morning... Apparently, the Dove World Outreach Center, an evangelical church based in Gainesville, Florida, has been rumored to have plans to burn copies of the Quran on church grounds to commemorate the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. "Muslims consider the Quran to be the word of God and insist that it be treated with the utmost respect, along with any printed material containing its verses or the name of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad. Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the Quran is deeply offensive." (Dozier) This demonstration would undoubtedly cause much anger among Muslims. General Petraeus warned that images of a burning Quran could be used to incite anti-American sentiments and could potentially be very dangerous for Americans worldwide. 


I think that General Petraeus was right in warning against this demonstration. While I understand some of the emotions that are playing into this church's decision to burn the Quran, doing so would do some serious damage to our image abroad. Some may argue that the Dove center has the Constitutional right to do this. However, since exercising this right to demonstrate could cause more harm than good, the Dove World Outreach Center should not be allowed to go through with this.


If you're interested, here is a link to the article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/06/AR2010090600589.html