This is part 4 in a series of posts about foreign policy.

Our military is designed to destroy foreign governments and defeat foreign armies.

Give our generals a nation in the world and they can crush that government in two months or less. The U.S. military is a powerful and blunt weapon. But, no military has the precision to go into a city and only kill the terrorists. Terrorists will either slip through the cracks or everyone will die.

A military can temporarily stabilize a region but that stability fails as soon as the military leaves. The insurgeants may leave for a time or lay low, but they will be back when the troops leave. Borders stop soldiors much better than they stop terrorists.

Espionnage is the Key

An army of spies would be much more effective at the delicate work of fighting transnational terrorist organizations. Only espionage has the surgical precision needed to fight non governmental actors such as Al Qaeda.

The man we need to fight terrorism is James Bond, not Rambo.

Trying to stop Islamic terrorism with the military is like trying to do open heart surgery with a chainsaw.