Show me the map that shows the USA with Iraq next-door....
So they don't live next door.. But they are no longer that far down the steet James... It's a very small world.
9/11 showed us that 19 guys with about $500,000 for flight school and some plane tickets could cause $100 Trillion in economic damage, all by infiltrating our open society and using its technology against us....
I wonder how many children in the world have starved since 9/11 because the world economy has been attacked??
And how many lives will be lost when Saddam has the bomb, the oil, and the ability to finally achieve, for himself or his son, the role of Saladin, ruler of the Arab world??
What Arab state will be able to oppose him?? What will the world be able to do when Saudi Arabia is subjugated to Saddam's leadership (upon pain of being invaded?)..
Talk about imperialism... A nuclear bomb and the ability to control 90% of the world's oil is something that would have made Hitler green with envy..
We have a war to fight James. But to fight it, we have to take the battle to the enemy, and to those who create the environment that nurtures that enemy...
The middle east has gone too long being ruled by petty dictators and corrupt unaccountable monarchy's who treat their nation's resources like their own personal treasure chest. It is the "swamp" that has spawned this Islamic militancy..
That, and a demographic trend that is IRREVERSIBLE .. A muslim baby boom has currently finds 50% of the Saudi Arabian population under the age of 18 and without any realistic hope for any economic opportunity..
That's some 400 to 500 million total muslims worldwide, looking for a job, looking for a spouse, as well as looking for a future where they can raise a family and have a better life than their parents had. Failing that, they will grasp onto to any straw possible which gives them some semblance of relevance and importance. And that currently seems to be Islamo-Fasicist militancy.
We cannot stop this baby boom James.. We can only accomodate it and attempt to shape the direction in which these people develop. To encourage them to focus on economic development and political and social tolerance. To de-emphasize nationalist interests fed by fear, xenophobia, and racism and learn to live together..
It's not an easy task, that I grant you.. But we've put off acknowleging this reality for long enough. And we have many Iraqi and Arab Americans who all understand this reality and are willing to help change it.
They are people who have been forced, or chose, to leave their homelands for better opportunities here. And we have to all ask ourselves why those opportunities only seem to be available to them here, in the west, and not in their own homelands?
Hawk |
