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Good social science, mostly
July 31, 2008 by Anonymous, 1 year 14 weeks ago
Comment id: 31324
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This is pretty good science in that it applies the scientific method to verify whether a hypothesis is correct. In this case the hypothesis is whether or not war is an effective way of eliminating a terrorist threat.
Unfortunately, as often seems the case in social sciences, the conclusion is an unjustified jump from the results. The result that police work is a better approach looks correct from the data, but the conclusion that the US has the tools to beat terrorism is not. For one thing, the US does not have any control of the police forces in the areas where most terrorist organizations are now operating.
Still, good information.