Yes you can end it... still enough nuclear weapons in arsenals to nuke the whole world. When everyones death, so is the mutual hatred.
Apart from such drastic measures, only time, peace and a lot of very diplomatic politics on both sides can heal the wounds. There is no quick win in this, and there is no violent option (at least not unless you see "some peace for mere months until the next, more radical mullah takes over and the terrorism intensifies" as a viable option... which might be good enough to you. It wouldn't be to me).
You can end the war against ISIS and maybe ISIS as a Mercenary organization with pure violence. Will not stop terrorism.
You can shot radical preachers worldwide. Will not stop terrorism.
I will not go into more radical steps you could take... apart from freeing the world of the human race, nothing will stop terrorism.
There MIGHT be steps that help midterm, like more transparency in financial transactions (if financial transaction are no longer anonymous, financing terrorism will dry up), better religious control and education (at least in europe, there are MANY moderate muslims trying to get active here), stricter laws and surveillance of emmigration and immigration (stop those terrorist tourists at the border).
Shooting people on the other side of the planet without any proper judgement, and with loose control (seeing what some special forces squads, not only US, did in Afganisthan and Iraq), IMO does not help short-, mid-, or longterm. Not saying some of these people do not deserve a bullet in their head. But that alone will not solve anything.
I agree with your general outlook, but not on the solution.
I don't see how positive outreach will dismantle the radical Wahhabi Sunni clerics (The ones who are an issue to begin with). Asking them to give that up is asking them to give up power + money, which I just don't see happening.
But by targetting them we're creating a situation where supporting attacks/attackers is synonymous with suicide. The question is then how many people are intellingent/charismatic enough to hold those positions of power, and be willing to lose their lives?
I'm certain there's tens of thousands of disenfranchised people in the region willing to suicide bomb, but only if their clerics/leaders tell them that's a sure-fire way into heaven, and that their family will be taken care of after they die. If there's no one to tell them that, the bombings should stop.
A lot of guessing (well, that goes for my opinion too), very little sure information on what exactly is going on...
To keep up the discussion though, I will continue my guesstimates.
You think the Hydra we call "islamist terrorism" needs heads to lead them. Are we so sure this is true? We have seen that the leaders were replaced with astonishing speed every time one was killed. I would say it is not totally impossible that the "leaders" being shown to the west in videos are actually just figureheads... killing them will also have an effect, just not as much as you would hope. You keep the negative effect (the figurehead being slain will ANGER the already radicalized people, not FRIGHTEN them... at best, some not yet radicalized get second thoughts about entering the terrorist network)... but you loose most of the positive effect (the day-to-day running of the organization will most probably not be hindered in any way, as the planning, and running of the organization is delegated to different, lesser known people).
Now, the US DID target these guys acting in the shadows before (which where ONLY revealed thanks to long running intelligence operations), and some of them got what they deserved (altough the collateral damage was sometimes staggering).
But just going against some radical preachers is going for the figureheads. They are not running the terrorist operations, they are not really recruiting the terrorists, and they certainly are not financing it. They might be involved in all of that. But a) it will not damage the actual terrorist organization much if one of the preachers in their surroundings is killed, b) it will take not long for someone to replace the preacher (after all, being a radical nutjob takes little skill and just (basic) knowledge of a single book. Some rethorical skill at best. People like that are recruited and trained by quoran schools worldwide every day. Not all of these are radicalizing people, but some do).
We are talking about people that seem to have lost most of their rational thinking because of a) economical pressures (no jobs, no money, and an oppressive regime), b) personal problems (teenagers doing stupid things, just with AK-47 instead of TP, the quite pronounced problem in some countries that most men will never be able to afford marriage, while sex outside of marriage is frowned upon, at best, simple personality crisis), c) ethnical quarrels (like so often, I am not sure if the whole sunnite vs shiite thing really started because of religion), and last but not least, d) religious zeal * ...
Now, do you really expect them to react like a sane person would if you kill their figurehead/leader/preacher? Why the hell would they get afraid of getting killed when that possibility was very real to begin with? When the obviously are also not able to see behind the many logical fallacies of their preachers false religious teachings, or the terrorist stupid propaganda?
* Of course religion will play a role. But I question if ANY sane person that has the money to live a good life and a job, living in a country which makes it at least halfway possible to live without too much oppression, is either an adult or has caring parents, has a fullfilling sex life (yes, yes, preferrably in a marriage), and is not locked in a long running feud with another ethnical group, would become a radical just because of religious indoctrination.
Even if, the step from radical views to actually committing suicide in the name of those radical views is a big one.
We have heard stories by now from the ISIS guys. Yes, many of them got shit scared after a while. But it only REALLY started when the whole ISIS thing started to smell like fish, after these poor misled suckers have seen the more secular among the ISIS mercenaries live the high life, drinking alcohol, whoring around and basically doing injustice to the locals without having any excuse for it.
This made them think that there was no real cause behind the whole thing than the personal gain of some of their members. Which then leads to the thinking that they wouldn't die as martyrs if they died for ISIS, after all most of the organization might preach the quoran, but trample it with their shoes through their actions.
At that point people get shit scared. I guess half because they become afraid of dying again, but also because they become afraid of dying for the wrong cause.
There are still the people radicalized or stupid enough to not notice, and the mercenaries just following for personal gain which don't care. Both will most probably not get scared. The first group is radical enough to die for their cause... the second group most probably mostly made up of psychopaths which lack the ability to feel afraid.
As to "if there's no one to tell them"... there is always someone. And make no mistake, the recruiting of the islamists has become pretty professional by now. Just the other night saw a documentation on that.
ISIS uses recruiters to find young teenagers that might be easy to radicalize, preachers to radicalize them, sponsors to organize their trip to syria. And that is before the actual training begins.
According to the documentary, these guys operate seperately, and almost no one knows the other guys. They have single contacts, but they don't know everyone else.
Now, such professionalism does NOT form over night. Clearly, if you would be able to find enough of these guys (NOT the public figureheads, but the guys in the shadows actually running the business), you could certainly damage the PROFESSIONALISM with which the operation would run. Which might then again lead to more mistakes, and in the end would convince some of the networks to keep a low profile until they recovered.
But in general, if you are just trying to do some simple suicide bombings, without any lofty goals (like al quaeda had, like ISIS has now), you don't need that level of professionalism. And as said, ANYONE with at least half a brain and some rethorical training can become an indoctrinator. There is no magical skill behind tempting the weak.
Positive Outreach might NOT dismantle the radical clerics. But their power is ONLY in place because people LISTEN to them. If people no longer listen, they loose their power. Now, we can discuss at length why people listen to radicals, IMO it boils down to the personal problems and an oppressive environment I listed above.
Can we influence muslim theology or the quoran? No. Can we solve ethnical conflicts just like that? No
But we have a big influence on a) economical situation in the region (maybe think twice before firing off the next embargo), b) which regime to support (maybe think twice before delivering weapons to dictators just so they dispose of other dictators), c) how the west is seen by the locals (maybe think twice before going all collateral again on the locals).
People that are able to live a good life, have the money for marriage and a family, and can live in relative peace from oppression (hey, not everyone is asking for democracy) will most probably mostly dismiss radicals as what they really are: nutjobs trying to set the world on fire for their own gain, or to just see it burn.
There will always be radicals throwing bombs. We cannot stop that. But with good long term thinking and a cool head, we can dry up their recruiting grounds.
