Hey echelon....
The new avatar you are sporting around , whats up with that?...Is that somebody you are proud of?....
IMO it's time the US had a real conversation on terrorism. Putting that picture on RS is a start.
Let's be honest, you cannot fight terrorists while supporting terrorism. It's not working. Afghanistan is failing and we are seeing a resurgence of jihadists as we prepare to pull out. Pakistan has been providing safe haven, arms, training and most importantly; command & control via the ISI to these groups.
I mean Pakistan for example is a supposed ally of the US, but time and time again we see the opposite. From a Paki general funding mohammed atta, to the pak army letting UBL escape tora bora and finally the icing on the cake, UBL found living in a military cantonment in a million dollar plus compound in what can only be described as a police state.
Supporting sunni takfirs, under the Obama administration, such as Jabhat al-Nusra, Free Syria Army, AQ, AQIM, Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Syria and Libya cannot continue in its present state. Providing arms, funding, training and logistics has backfired, the most public of which since 9/11/01 was Benghazi.
Supporting them abroad is only one side of the coin; the other side is the ineptness of the FBI and the Homeland Security apparatus in general. With its massive budgets, federalisation of local and state law to serve as its eyes and ears, the fusion centres and PRISM; how is it conceivable that boston could happen?
Literally all major domestic terror incidents foiled in the US since 9/11 was a direct result of a concerned citizen/citizens, reporting something they thought was strange to either US embassies or domestic law enforcement.
I suppose the fundamental question is do you feel safer?