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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E who wrote (8759)	11/3/2001 8:21:09 PM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi E; Re: How, I asked, could the Americans fight terrorism without creating a whole generation of new suicide bombers? ''You can't,'' he said pleasantly, speaking from the Israeli experience. ''You all the time create new generations. These days they don't have any problem to recruit suicides. For every suicide they want, they have 5, 7, 10 volunteers!'' There are a bunch of problems with this statement. (1) It's a fact of human nature that humans do not give their lives up on causes that are hopeless. The cause of pushing Israel into the sea is not a hopeless one for the Arabs; any military man can look at a map and agree with this. So yes, the Israelis are an attractive target for suicide bombers. (2) The quote completely evades the issue of whether it is possible to eliminate suicide bombers through the technique of eliminating the Madrassahs. (3) People I've known who've killed themselves didn't seem particularly depressed. (4) It may be possible to find a lot of people who are willing to believe that they're going to paradise etc., etc., etc., but the fact of human nature is that *the vast majority of people are not going to be convinced of this.* (5) The claim that "for every suicide they want, they have 5, 7, 10 volunteers", isn't supported by any evidence. I doubt that it's true. It's in the nature of war that all resources get used to the extent available and useful. It's evident that suicide bombers are useful, and it's also evident that very little explosives are required per bomber. The United States had days in WW2 where 1,000 men died for their country. The Arab nations are far, far larger in population than the United States was then, where are the days when 1,000 Arab men die for their faith? If that were happening, Israel would be gone already. No, they have to go to great lengths to groom suicide bombers, they are not free. The fact is that as far as fighting to the death goes, the Arabs are not particularly good. The Japanese, on the other hand... -- Carl

To: E who wrote (8759)	11/3/2001 11:17:36 PM
From: k.ramesh	Respond to of 281500

Madrassahs could be due to lazy Saudis rather than evil Saudis. By assuming that the Saudis planned all this religious fanaticism is probably giving them too much credit. Some of it no doubt was, but a good part must have been from well meaning saudis and Pakistani workers abroad keen on improving their country. Too bad they did not have alternatives to religious organizations in Pakistan, nor the ability to demand results for their money. Going forward Pakistanis (Ike), can take a look at this much acclaimed program in India. Education Guarantee Scheme : fundaschool.org