<I am, by nature, not much of a ‘maximally intrusive’ interventionist, believing more in leveraging other available options and resources, because it gets less tiring, thus more sustainable, even as it allows more flexibility over a longer elapsed time, allowing deliberation, experimentation, and reflective observation.>
Jay, I agree. I expect it's more effective to bribe their children. Unfortunately, part of the problem seems to be that when the children are bribed, then rejected after their attempts to join the light side, they become belligerent, feeling betrayed, and plunge headlong into the culture they initially rejected.
I suppose it's not much different from John Walker Linde and Timothy McVeigh and Ted Kaczynski, home-grown terrorists. Also, the frequent mass murders at school or work are much the same - attempts at acceptance, followed by alienation, anger, revenge.
foreignaffairs.org
<Much has been said about the middle-class origins of most of the September 11 hijackers, rebutting the popular notion that poverty and humiliation can explain terrorism. Benjamin and Simon take the analysis further, providing poignant insight into the "half-baked" men of the Muslim world. They are not scheming against the West out of isolation and ignorance; they are instead motivated by failed or futile attempts to interact with the West. Some of bin Laden's followers had hoped to flourish in Western nations but failed to thrive there and were then susceptible to recruitment. Others came with a political agenda and lived a double life until mobilized by their al Qaeda masters. The authors show that exposure to the West was somehow a damaging experience. Some terrorists were religious by upbringing and felt compromised by the looser mores of the West, others tried to fit in but were rebuffed.
Muhammad Atta, the Egyptian-born ringleader of the September 11 attacks, was a telling case. He studied in Germany to avoid the fate of his unemployed and alienated compatriots back home, and he tried to bridge his two worlds by writing a thesis on the conflict between tradition and modernity in the Syrian city of Aleppo. To understand him, Benjamin and Simon indulge in a little amateur psychoanalysis: "At some point ... he had a brush with temptation; perhaps he felt he had succumbed. Whatever touched him, he identified with the West. It might have been as simple as a personal desire to be part of the West that caused him to feel contaminated. His repulsion was powerful, and he felt somehow humiliated."
After describing the history and motivations of al Qaeda, the first half of the book ends with a chapter titled "Fields of Jihad." >
Americans need to ask not just "Why do they hate us?" but "Why do we hate us?" The answers to both seem to stem from similar causes.
More here: Message 18357745
The point is, rather than reject, alienate, attack and be attacked in Iraq and North Korea [and China in due course], it would be better to use the magical elixir of cdma2000 phragmented photons to create peace, light, harmony, happiness, health, prosperity, long life, love and contentment.
Bit by bit, even Saddam would be seduced by the enervating emanations of cdma2000. He and all belligerents would be drawn into a soporific state where their worries, angers and nightmares would evaporate into pleasurable dreams, good will to all the world, happiness and contentment. Think reflexology, beach, sunshine, warmth, troppo harmony and happiness. Lovely girls and curling waves, shining green leaves ... no sniper scopes ... none of the madness, anger, confrontation, fear and destruction.
Already, ElMatador is happily ensconced in Bangkok, building CDMA networks to create the magical effects in Thailand. He has come over to the light side. Message 18369931
Merry Xmas, peace, light, harmony, health, happiness, longevity, prosperity, love, contentment and cdma2000 to you and all the world. May your sheepish year, 2003, be a cuddly, woolly delight.
Mqurice |
