Quote:
Originally posted by Tim Hancock
Denis,
For chuckles, I was just trying to get Pat go on about how we should appease the ME by evacuating the whole ME, 100% so that they will quit "disliking" us. I for one do not think that the radical islamists would suddenly change their attitude or actions towards western society simply by pulling out.
This simplistic attitude of leave them alone and they will leave us alone is flawed. The radical islamists want us dead whether we leave them alone or not.
PS: I rarely watch Fox news 
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OK, fair enough. From what I can glean here, Pat wants the U.S. out of all foreign countries, (not just the ME), because he is an isolationist. He believes that doing so would instantly eliminate all causes for conflict w/ the U.S. I do not think that his solution is completely workable or realistic or even desirable, but there is a great solution somewhere between the current policies and his plan. I see nothing wrong w/ having allies in the world and being a superpower that protects these smaller allies, but there are sensible limits. Our policy of leaving troops and bases in Saudi Arabia, for instance, was not only unnecessary from a strategic standpoint but also a hugely arrogant and miscalculated move that inflamed radical muslims. There are over a billion muslims in the world, within any group this large there are going to be extremists and violent over-throw types, including Christianity. My Catholic distant relatives in Northern Ireland are known for their terrorism, as were the early Israelis. The only pertinent factor is how much traction these extremists get among the general population of their group, and that wholly depends on how extreme the perceived injustice is towards them combined w/ desperation about their prospects for fighting it using "conventional" means.
It is in our interest to try to reduce radicalism in the muslim world, and the people currently in charge seem to have the opposite agenda. Why? Beats the schit out of me. Maybe someone is profiting from the current wars. It's a mystery. Anyone who believes that we are in any kind of position to "beat some sense" into these billion+ people is just hugely ignorant, IMO. This is a time for big brains to step in, unfortunately Bush and the Israeli politicians both suffer from a form of machismo where they will do absolutely anything not to appear "weak". Reason and good strategy take a powder with this constraint.