A War of Ideas

I agree that waging a war of ideas can be much more effective than waging a war physically. If we use force to beat terrorism, we will only create more terrorists because we will increase the hatred of the United States. If we wage a war of ideas we may potentially impact some people to change their way of thinking about the United States. If we change peoples' minds about the U.S., we will decrease the hatred of the United States, therefore decreasing the number of terrorists. If we decrease the fuel (hatred) we use to power the terrorists, we will decrease their power.

However, I feel that using information may not always work. I think that the terrorists are so fanatical that there is pretty much no getting through to them. We need to use brute force to nab the ones that we can, and if we can't talk some sense into them then I think it is necessary to put them in prison. I think that by befriending the peaceful people we will decrease the number of terrorists because people will realize that the U.S. isn't really the enemy.

U.S. policy will change if we use this idea because we would use a great deal more psychological warfare. We would try using persuasion to convince the Iraqi people that they want to live the same life we do.