Quote:
Originally posted by speeder
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.
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There are those (uber cynics) who think we went into Iraq to
protect the high price of oil. That Saddam had threatened to increase production rates to bring down the price per barrel and also (old rumor) to 'dump the dollar' and link his oil prices to the Euro. Dubya pulicly stated his goal of removing Saddam in 1999, after all.
But what does this have to do with radical Muslims? They provided the excuse. First, they provided the excuse for mobilizing the US armed forces against a group that may not have had even a dozen "members" on 9/11. Al Quaeda, remember, has not been tightly tied to the events of 9/11. Al Quaeda has never claimed responsibility for 9/11 although they have claimed responsibility for many other attacks before and after 9/11.
Most of radical Muslim activity takes place against other Muslims or other people within their home countries. There have been only a handful of attacks on foreign soil and, IIRC, all took place after the US made al Quaeda into a formidable foe in the eyes of the world. In a very real way, the US has been largely responsible for the growth of al Quaeda.