Wars not in the national interest never grow in popularity.
It's not my fault that you fail to understand why this war IS in the national interest.
Some people are natural "disbelievers" who hide their heads in the sand even when they are getting commercial aircraft rammed up their backsides by militant suicide martyrs.
Harvey, I've been predicting that Islamists and the West were on a collision course ever since I was studying interational affairs in college 15 years ago. My focus was on Egypt, and I truly was amazed at how Mubarak was able to contain the Ihkwan (Moslem Brotherhood) movement in that country. He did it by going after the leadership, such as Al-Zawahiri (who's now the #2 in Al-Qaeda), and forcefully dealing with the clerics who preached this hatred.
But even now he understands that the continuing economic stagnation in his country, combined with the 2.1% (used to be 3%) population growth, is a recipe for disaster. And that's why, apparently, he is preparing the way for some major economic and legal changes that will hopefully unleash economic and human rights in the country, giving those young people something to live for, rather than permitting to fall into the grasp of those who only seek to use them as martyrs.
IF ANYTHING, this country needs some economic breathing space until alternative fuels like Hydrogen can be implemented (probably 10-15 years from now). Then we can effectively wean ourselves from foreign oil and decrease the Arab's control over OUR economy.. However, they will still control the economies of many developing nations and Asia and Europe.
Did you know that some 40% of the combined muslim population is under 18? That's approximately 400 million kids coming into adulthood within the next 5-10 years. Take a mere 1% of them (more likely 10%) who decide to be fundamentalists and you have 4 (40?) million people hostile to Western values and seeking to restore a Caliphate.
Take 1% (10%) of them as likely to actionalize their beliefs via terrorist attacks or combat, and we're talking about 400,000 to 4 million potential martyrs, all looking to collect 72 virgins via some glorius attack against the "infidels".
Those are very germane national interests Harvey. We can either permit these young people to fall under the influence of the militants by doing nothing, or we can actually engage and defeat them in combat, and pressure existing regimes to economically and politically diversify and become accountable to their people.
It's not exactly a mystery why the Saudis are now under seige themselves. Fully 1/2 of their population is under 18, with 30% unemployment, and a population of people more educated in philosophy and Islam than in technical training. And all of them are living in sight of these fabulous palaces, wondering why they can't have a portion of that wealth (or being so disgusted by it that they want to destroy the regime and return to "purer" ways).
You do the math Harvey.. And the next time you think about "national interest" you remember those millions of kids living in the madrassas and religous schools, learning to hate all things non-muslim.
Hawk |
