End terrorism by leaving Mideast

Terror, or fear, to get what you want is not new. We wanted the Japanese to surrender World War II, so we dropped the atomic bomb to scare them into doing our bidding. We used terrorism in Iraq and called it “shock and awe.”

Hitler used terrorism to make the German people so scared of the communists that they’d give him more power. I hope our country does not become a nation of cowards due to the actions of a few people who see terror as their only hope of getting our attention.

Terrorism works, even against a powerful country like ours that they can’t match militarily. It’s all they have. A few guys with box cutters who wanted the U.S. out of their affairs got us running scared after 9/11, and we started giving up our freedoms and bleeding our treasury to “combat terrorism.” They got what they wanted.

If we got out of the oil-rich Muslim East, would it stop? Muslim terrorism in Russia stopped when the Russians pulled out of Afghanistan. As long as we are in their back yard, expect them to use the only weapon available to them: fear. Were you in their position, what might you do?

This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 7:29 AM with the headline "End terrorism by leaving Mideast."