Big Bombs Alone Will Not End Terror

The United States(US) underscored its military might on Thursday by detonating the "mother of all bombs" - the most powerful non-nuclear bomb the country has ever used in fighting, over tunnels of the Islamic State(IS) terror group in Nangarhar, Afghanistan. The Afghan government reported this morning that no civilians were killed nor injured in the bombing, but it confirmed that 36 IS fighters were killed.

The detonation of the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb(MOAB), or the "mother of all bombs", over that particular area of Afghanistan, came after the death of a US soldier in that region a week ago. MOAB targeted a network of tunnels used and operated by the IS terrorists in the Achin district, of Afghanistan, the BBC-News reported.

Weighing 21,600 pounds, 30-feet long and guided by GPS, MOAB was dropped from a MC-130 transport plane. The main expected effect from this big bomb is a huge blast-wave stretching a-mile in diameter from the impact zone created by 18,000 pounds of TNT. The IS certainly obtained a first-hand experience of US military might.

However, big bombs will not stop terror, nor deter it. MOAB and similar weaponry could force terrorists from caves and caverns to more populated urban centers, where they would represent an even greater threat to innocent civilians, while making their detection difficult.

To abate terror, specific targeted rebuttal is required to counter fallible religious rhetoric and ideology. Also, a righting of historical wrongs, access to a fair system of redress to deal with grievances and the extinction of bad governance, like the Bashar al Assad regime, are all required to combat terror, not big bombs alone. Moreover, an ongoing engagement of varying cultures could help in reducing terror threats.