[Mule]

Originally Posted by Superman

Another evaluative bullseye from Jeff Higgins.
We're occupying the country that is in the geographical and cultural CENTER of their world.

Actually you are showing your ignorance on the subject. The geographical and cultural CENTER of their world is Saudi Arabia. You may have heard of Mecca, Medina and the mosque of ali? Is that the reason they bombed the WTC once and crashed planes into it twice and attacked the pentagon, blew up the Cole, bombed embassies, etc?

You also mentioned that cultural intermingling is happening, and is unavoidable. I suspect this does not bode well for expectation of future relief from terrorism.

Another rare instance where you are correct.

Gosh I......I just wonder......wonder if there is any connection between the fact that they hate us for our ideology and our imperialism - and the fact that we are the most industrialized country in the world and they are sitting on an ocean of crude oil. Could it just possibly be true that we have been busy asserting ourselves into their affairs?

Could it be that we took them from a culture of herding goats & wiping their asses with their hands & enabled them to buy Ferrari's by the boat load? The nerve of us.

And then there is the question of energy independence. If it were possible, a Presidential call to become 80% energy independent during the next decade would be one of the most impressive political coups in the history of American politics. And in spite of all the folks here who seem to be pessimistic about our chances of achieving this......I believe it. I think we can do it. And I think we should. In fact, I think we MUST. We should be waging war........on our own dependence. That, my friends, would be leadership.

A good start would be to persuade Teddy Kennedy to allow those windmills near his estate.