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Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce
C'mon Rich, how does the "french giving up", mean anything, anywhere.
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Concepts are similar to why we have an illegal immigration problem. Eliminate a reason for a problem AND that problem goes away. As long as Britain insisted on imposing a solution on Northern Ireland rather than work for a solution, then that problem persisted. Once Sen Mitchell arrived - and the Brits were furious about having negotiations ongoing - then a diplomatic solution replaced terrorism. Once the French stopped imposing a brute force solution in N Africa, then violence was no longer necessary. Once the Israelis were talking to Palestinians (and a solution appeared promising - Oslo Accords), then all terrorism stopped.
An inverse example. Once Zionist extremists came to power - called for and even got the assasination of Peres - terminated the Oslo Accords - then Sharon got what he wanted - Intafada II - plenty of violence.
The purpose of war is to return to diplomacy. When diplomacy does not work, then war is not just possible - but essential. Exactly why we teach Americans 'lessons of history' so that American leaders can not lie and so that diplomacy gets the respect it deserves. Whooops. Maybe others besides Urbane Guerilla did not first read the Pentagon Papers.
A wonderful example of how diplomacy works was the Balkans. Containment. Negotiation. Selective use of force. Economic pressure. The problem in Serbia literally negotiated himself out of a job - without any invasion of Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, etc. Holbrook literally talked Milosevik into surrender. It's all about identifying and then negotiating a problem out of existence. Violence - ie terrorism - only when leaders fail to perform their job.
Nations with great leaders don't need 20 years of violence and warfare to fix problems. And once the locals (Eurpoeans) could not do that job in the Balkans, only then did the Americans enter resulting in far less loss of life.
How many people had to die uselessly in Northern Ireland before the powers that be decided to stop following violent men and instead address the problem.