Hitler came to the same conclusion.:cool:

in all honesty it appears to me to be the only solution

Wow, that's a quote to save for a rainy day.

Even if it were not contrary to our culture's ideals, I'm still not certain that your final solution would work, Jim. Shoving a suicide bomber up against the wall and frisking him won't do much good, I'm afraid.

And if you want to change the world's opinion of the U.S. very quickly (and for the negative) your idea would be a good way to start. Suddenly, everyone becomes friends with China and we are the new Third Reich.

I really didn't want to join in on this one, but there seem to be too many misconceptions among my Pelican brothers. I lived and worked in a largely Arab community in New York for five years. Many of my friends there are Muslim. All of them, to one degree or another support OBL's agenda. One of the most respected physicians I knew in New York was a muslim from Syria. He was an important man in the local mosque. After the attack on the World Trade Center we were having dinner and I commented on what a terrible thing the bombing was. His response was chilling. He told me, "Deep in our hearts, we all support the fight against Israel and her allies."

Tim Hancock hit the nail squarely on the head. Israel is the issue. It is the only issue. Our cultural differences are not an issue. Our decadent ways do not threaten the Muslim world. Our heresy may disgust or amuse them, but they expect nothing more from us. We are not Muslim. To a muslim, watching westerners defile themselves is like watching pigs fornicate.

It's great to read these assumptions regarding islam written by people who by their writing show they know nothing about islam.

Strother said:
"Without doing any research, I'll wager that Christians have killed more non-Christians in the name of God than Muslims have killed non-Muslims in the name of Allah."

Are you aware that the good muslims killed over 15,000,000 people in India alone? That's more than Hitler killed. And Christians were NEVER directed to spread the religion at the point of a sword.

Yes he did. I did not say it was a correct solution. Obviously it is not PC. Tell me then what the solution is?

There is no solution that is not as extreme as the actions of the terrorists.

Oh and to be clear, I did not say I like the solution I was mearly giving an answer to a question. He asked to put all government and PC aside. So there is the answer I came up with.

Its not my opinion it an answer to a question and that is all.

So what psychosis drives this? Somebody get a map. How many miles from the border of India to the Atlantic coast of Morocco? How can they get so worked up over this sliver of land?? What does this hatred tell us?

BTW – one of OBL’s medium term goals is the taking back of “Andalusia”. That’s right, they are still sore about getting kicked out of Spain in 1492. If ain’t one thing, its gonna be another..
:(

No, I was not aware of that. I'm not being facetious, but will you give me some more information on that? Are you talking about the Muslim conquest of India?

Mule, how many Native Americans do you think were killed by settlers abetted by the Bible and their government?

If you start with "more than the number of Jews killed by Hitler" you'll be on the right track.

The point is that you can find justification for violence in the Bible as well as in the Quran.

This is arguably the stupidest thing ever written on this board. Ever hear of the Crusades? The year 1095 ring a bell?

You make a good point. The U.S. Senate at one point actually voted to fund a program to seed blankets with smallpox to further the "eradication" program.

However, since that time we have established a fairly remarkable record regarding human rights. We are the only society in the history of the world to fight a war to free a minority class from slavery. We helped stop the spread of fascism in Europe in the 40's. We have made tremendous strides in the promotion and protection of civil rights. We are not perfect, but we strive, slowly and continually, to do the right thing. Two steps forward, one step back. We make mistakes, sometimes big ones, but as a society we move slowly in the right direction.

In contrast, the middle-eastern and north african societys tend to be more primitive. It's not a difficult task to make a sociological comparison between the dark ages in europe and modern day Sudan.

No doubt. The road from dark ages to enlightenment is a rough one.

Absolutely correct. One could infer that 'civility' and 'moral behavior' is a luxury bought with a higher standard of living. Abraham Maslow, et. al.

But we are all descended from the meanest, toughest, most ruthless of our species and it doesn't take much to get us to reconnect with our past.

I am not one of those who 'personifies' nations. I don't think a nation acting in its best interest goes on personal vendettas. But then, I also see the notion of declaring war on a tactic to be utterly preposterous.

People like OBL, Ted Kaczynski and Timothy McVeigh will always exist among us. The most we can hope for is to create a society around them that will not tolerate their views and will actively work against them. Randomly bombing populations of foreign countries has the opposite effect.

Creating a society that will not tolerate their views? Sounds like ousting Saddam and building up a democratic state is the right thing to do then! Along with non-"random bombings" of terrorist infested locations.

Sounds like tech has finally seen the light!;) :D

This is based on what I've read and seen with my own eyeballs. I have read several reports on the devient nature of the muslim school curriculum over the years. It's not just in the US either - look into reports about the muslim schools in southern phillipines and you'll find this. It seems logical to me that it would be prevelant in muslim schools around the world as this is their belief. I have friends that lived in the phillipines for a couple of years and came back with the opinion that muslims are out to take over the planet.

Did you read the link I posted regarding muslim schools?


I have many very good non-muslim Arab friends. I don't know many muslims.

Yes but modern-day christians don't convert through annialation.

I hate anyone that would take pleasure in inflicting pain on others or who justify killings in the name of their religion. Do I hate muslim's? Like I said before - the line between a good muslim and a bad one is getting very thin. The islamic community should note that if they want to change peoples opinions about them they had better do a quick about-face.

I'm christian but I'm not religious. However, I take lots of interest in learning about other religions and cultures. I find the hypocracy found in every religion amusing.

Living in the bay area lends itself to cultural exposure that is seen in very few places and I rather enjoy it.

One Muslim I knew once told me that, according to his interpretation, even thought th Koran states that all men must be dealt with honestly, but it really only applied to other muslims, not non-muslims.

Since I am not muslim, I dropped any business activities with him like a hot rock.

A column by Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, the general manager of Al- Arabiya news channel:

A frightening trend is that more and more people who aren't so outlandish are willing to give genocide as a solution. Naturally most aren't suggesting it, but to mention it at all means something; especially when it comes from people who are fairly sensible and normal people.

A manager of an Arab news channel? I guess the media is full of touchy-feely liberals everywhere. What's a jackbooted conservative to do?

In all serious, that is a very interesting quote. I'm glad to see that there are some within the Middle Eastern culture who will speak out. I've met many Iranian exiles who speak similarly. (BTW Mule, most Iranians are not Arabs, but they are Muslim. Understand?) The quote will be denounced by some here as an exception to the rule. Alas.

Personally I would like to have a discussion without labeling people liberal or conservative. I don't know about the rest of you but I really don't care who people identify with - it's the ideas that I'm interested in. Once people begin identifying with a group an us vs. them mentality ensues, which negates any objective input.

That quote is a good start, but is one opinion of one person. How about showing something similar from high ranking clerics. Muslim's tend to follow their leader. I would bet that if a high ranking cleric came out with the above decree you would see a decline in terrorist activity.

Unfortunately most of us have labeled each other as "Lefter than me" or "Righter than me" or "About the same as me" already. And then we assume things about that person based on what we believe a Rightie or a Leftie thinks.

Maybe an interesting thread is would be to give a list of wedge issues and see where people fall:

1. If you had to pick Right or Left, which is it?
2. Progun or pro gun control?
3. Pro life or pro choice?
4. Dubya - good or bad?
5. Iraq - going well or no?

I'd be willing to bet that many people wouldn't just pick all option A or all option B.

But then maybe that would just touch off a bunch of mini-arguments about each issue.