jim rozen wrote:

In article , Rick Cook says...

Why are we a target?
Simple. Our system works, theirs doesn't and a few of them hate us for it.

Well there's a bit more to it that that.

Jim, there's an _enormous_ amount more to it than that. But the vast majority
of it is not what you seem to think it is and I didn't want to write a book on
an irrelevant subject.


If your point were really
true, and the full truth of the matter, then we'd still be a target
if we:

a) stopped supporting the saudis

b) stopped supporting israel

c) stopped invading middle eastern countries for cheap oil

d) stopped supporting secular governments in muslim countries

e) stopped medding where we have no reason to meddle.

If we stopped doing all those things we'd still be a target. These people have
made that very clear, at least in the stuff they put out for the consumption of
our people.

Even if we take all your points as absolutely true (and the last one is utterly
bizarre in the post 9/11 world) this minority would still hate us. Most of the
ones who hate us enough to kill us hate us that badly because a) we are
successful and that highlights their failures and b) we do not conform to their
medieval mindset. (And no, that last is not a pejorative. It is a fairly exact
description and this minority is proud of the fact.)

I could run on at some length about this, but I'll ask you a question instead.
Have you ever heard of the Dar al Harb? Do you understand the implications of
taking that term literally ? As the Islamic extremists do and the vast majority
of their co-religionists don't.

Israel, the Saudis and such are functionally minor issues in those parts of the
world, no matter how much they may figure in propaganda by both the extremists
and not-so-extremists. (Those issues also serve as convenient stalking horses
for governments that need to dissipate anger over their failures.)

This is combined with our tendency to grasp on to 'reasons' that make sense in
our context and ignore the rest of what's going on, even when it is far more
central to the overall picture.



Yes our system works, and it works *great*.

No, our 'system' for dealing with this problem works *terribly*. But we're not
going to fix that until we comprehend what we're dealing with.

What better way
to lead, than by example? It's a lot better than leading
by, say, invasion.

Uh, Jim. . .
It is precisely our example that infuriates this minority and rouses a few of
them to murderous rage. Our overall system is what these crazies want
desperately to destroy.

--RC


Jim

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