Hi Hawkmoon; Re: "There are millions of muslim youth coming to the age of majority over the next decade or two."
This is true, though I think you're exaggerating the consequences. There are billions of non muslim youth coming to the age of majority over the next few decades.
Re: "And their hearts and minds are up for grabs, either by the west, or by Islamic extremists."
This is true, but your technique of converting them with bullets is hopeless. The proper way to convert them is to do the same thing we did to convert the youth of Iran, who are now giving the government there so much trouble.
In other words, our most optimal interaction with the Middle East is to leave it alone.
Our way of life is the most attractive one, and in the complete absence of military operations, it is the one that people in the Middle East will find most attractive.
The one way that a dictatorship best unites its people is by war. We don't have to give them one. We can instead simply wait them out, and they will drop like ripe fruits into our hands, when the time is right.
Until then, we have to make sure that no single country takes control of all the oil, or beats up its neighbors. But the way to do that is to push them out when they are the obvious aggressor. That will help us to win converts to our way of thinking, because the US will be liberators cheered by the people.
The alternative way, to suppress the area so that no aggression is possible, makes us into aggressors instead of liberators, and turns off their youth from following our path.
-- Carl |
