Anthology of Interest

Scholars from the RAND Corporation, a thinktank with historically strong ties to the Pentagon, posted a research brief concluding that, since 1968, military force has rarely caused the end of a terrorist organization.

From the abstract:

How do terrorist groups end? The evidence since 1968 indicates that terrorist groups rarely cease to exist as a result of winning or losing a military campaign. Rather, most groups end because of operations carried out by local police or intelligence agencies or because they join the political process. This suggests that the United States should pursue a counterterrorism strategy against al Qa'ida that emphasizes policing and intelligence gathering rather than a “war on terrorism” approach that relies heavily on military force.

I'm totally not qualified to comment on their research, but it's quite interesting as a layman. Perhaps someone should pass it along to Barack "We need more troops in Afghanistan" Obama