WASHINGTON, March 29 (UPI) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates advocated a softer, multiple-front approach to the war on terrorism in testimony Thursday.
He said he thinks the United States will be facing "jihadist" terrorist for decades to come but that the threat will eventually "taper off."
The way to encourage that is to work with the countries that tend to spawn terrorists to address the underlying causes, rather than focusing primarily on military action.
"I think that we and other nations need to look at the issues, social and political and economic conditions that give rise to the kind of despair that would lead people to strap on suicide vests. It's a matter of political solutions. It's a matter of economic development. We have to do that in partnership with other nations," Gates said.
A small number of hard-core terrorists will only stop when they are captured and killed, Gates said.
"But at the end of the day, it seems to me that success is in working with other countries, including those from whence these people come, for the most part, in terms of reform, in terms of change, in terms of giving hope to people. I think that's a very long-term process," he said.
"Terrorism has always been ... a tactic of the weak against the strong. And I think you won't eliminate it altogether, ever. But what you can do is, over time, reduce it to a level that you can continue daily life without feeling imperiled or putting civil liberties at risk," Gates told the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.
