After that was cleared up, it became boring information. News talking about it like ISIS is one place and Trump was the first person to think up bombing it, rather than this just being the gajillionith bomb we've tossed over there in our "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" version of foreign policy.

If it actually had any impact on this tunnel network, then great. Just can't help thinking this isn't a problem one can solve with firepower alone. It's a war of ideologies.

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It's certainly not a war we can win on ideology alone, or we wouldn't still be here.

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Not saying we shouldn't defend ourselves and our interests, just saying that it's a mindset that stems from a certain culture and set of beliefs, and bombs don't change that sort of thing.

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On the contrary, bombs change mindsets all the time. Shit, we're posting in English after all. We didn't win the various world wars because of our superior identity politics.

Anywho the reason the MOAB makes me happy... when you talk a big game and don't follow through, that's really bad. When you back up your words with decisive action, your words have meaning again. THAT is the essential step towards peace.

I'm just saying that it's something that needs to be fought on more than just a battlefield, ya know?

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Exactly, we need spiritually strong leaders, who's words are backed by nukes!

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I'm gonna clarify my above post: Bombs will not do away with religious radicalism. I mean I agree with you, I'm just saying that it's something that needs to be fought on more than just a battlefield, ya know?

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On the contrary, bombs change mindsets all the time. Shit, we're posting in English after all. We didn't win the various world wars because of our superior identity politics.

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We can't ignore the development of the internet and growth of internationally available mass media. Ideologies now spread far more effectively across borders, with more independence from governments, armies and printed newspapers, than they did during the World Wars.

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That works both ways though. The MOAB drop spread far more effectively across borders too. Also since WW2, the US has vastly (Vaaaaaastly) increased its military superiority to every other nation on earth, so our shows-of-force are more effective than they've ever been (short of nuking).

Non-state actors have been kicking our ass in the information-sharing department for a long time, in no small part because the last two presidents took a vastly different approach. New sheriff, new strategy, and it's a pretty sound one.

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I agree to some extent with that. I'm not going to pretend to understand fully the distinction between the strategies used, however the repetitive use of drone strikes didn't appear to be accomplishing anything to me. I don't necessarily favour a stronger approach than previously but I do favour a more purposeful one. I know that here in the UK for awhile our government only bothered to bomb ISIS before press releases, it was absurdly passe.

But globalised communications bring the fight home too. No matter how much spending you put into the military they can't fight a war in your own country. If we want to stop terrorism, which is supposedly what this is about, we have to engage in the ideological war at home too. Trump is vastly outgunned in that department. He's a caricature of an American who repeatedly seems incapable of seeing other viewpoints or stringing an argument together. He's done nothing but stir up divisions at home so far.

MOAB dropped days after the bannon wing of the party lost their hold on the security council, establishment republicans back in the game.