help convince my friend that we don't have to fight terrorists "over there to keep them from here"

[Jeffersons Ghost]

and don't be abusive he's right here, liberal and misinformed.

[Skittles]

1. the way the Viet Cong followed us here?

[Bluebear]

2. How are they going to "get here"?

Seriously, how are you going to weed out individual terrorist suspects over there who have the means to enter this country and wreak havoc here?

[arcane1]

3. We're not fighting terrorists over there

so his argument is based on nothing.

[gratuitous]

4. Actually, I'd turn it around

Ask your friend to prove that by fighting terrorists "over there" that we have kept terrorism from our land. Because by my reading of current events, we haven't done that at all. Sure, not every terror attack has been the ringing success of taking down the Twin Towers, but even the most dedicated terrorists can do that only once. However, we've had a pretty good share of anthrax attacks, bombs going off, nascent plans foiled, and other things happening that it would be a pretty stone-brained person who could claim that we have kept the terrorists away from the United States since launching two invasions, spending a trillion dollars, losing thousands of soldiers, and killing uncounted hundreds of thousands of civilians who were living peaceably in their own countries before we exterminated them.

[mikita]

5. hard to convince someone when the POTUS says the same thing.

You've got a tough road there. I have pretty much given up.

On Edit: It's the same boogie-man as the Communist scare, but better......

[eleny]

6. they're here already

time to mind the house.

[PDJane]

7. I'm still pointing out, over and over...........

with the same success that the whole war on terror thing was bogus, a charade to prop up the so-called military-industrial complex. Bush himself felt that the only way to prop up the economy was war. Never mind that the regulations he decided to destroy would have done a much better job of same.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

8. I would like to redefine how we fight:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8505739

ty

[Mz Pip]

9. Fighting them "over there"

makes them want to come "over here." No matter how diligent we are, some will (and do) get through. There has always been terrorism. "Over there" is not just one country. Terrorists are stateless and move around a lot.

Aside from that, it's expensive. Very, very expensive. so IMHO we are much better served if we use our resources to make sure fewer of them actually do get over here.

[Vinnie From Indy]

10. Point out that we are already being attacked by a far more destructive foe

THE BP OIL DISASTER! Inform him that we have much bigger fish to fry back here at home.

[JuniperLea]

11. Any terrorist that might harm us is probably already here...

And has been here for a very long time.

But if you tell your friend this, he may sock himself away with food and ammo to last a decade...

[Scuba]

12. Ask him how many people we have to kill to make everyone else like us...

...the answer is everyone but us.

[mwb970]

13. The very idea is idiotic.

What, exactly, is being said here? Is the concept that as long as our military is occupied in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is physically impossible for any terrorist to attack us here? So if the Columbus Fire Department sends all of its trucks and firemen to Cleveland, that ensures that there simply cannot be any fires in Columbus as long as they are gone? Excuse me?

Do the people who spout this nonsense picture a single-file line of terrorists in Iraq, blocked by American troops there and thus helplessly unable to "break away" and come to America and set off a car bomb? What is it about American troops being in the Middle East that prevents anyone at all from coming to Canada from anywhere in the world, sneaking across our border, and staging an attack?

The whole concept is so self-evidently stupid that I don't even know what you should say to someone who espouses it, other than to suggest professional psychiatric help. A disconnect from reality is called psychosis. Maybe this would be a good starting point.

I feel so sorry for you and your friend. He or she is truly lost.