To: lorne who wrote (16192 ) 6/12/2002 12:46:38 AM From: David in Ontario Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 27666 Lorne - yes you're right in one way - these nut cases will do what ever it takes to to push their view of the world onto their own people, as well as onto us. However, the bottom line is that they have drawn a line in the sand, and we must stand up to them, not be afraid, and meet them head on with force (military, economic, diplomatic,...). We value life, freedom and tolerance - they value death, persecution and intolerance. Muslims - good and bad - will be hated and despised for centuries to come. I just don't understand why the (fundamentilist) Muslims want to immigrate to the West and live amongst the infidels? Every Friday it seems the mullah's fire them up at prayers in the mosques, and they emerge hating everything and everyone in the West. Wouldn't they just be happier back home? I yearn for the CIA of the old days. They need the tools and ability to do what they do best, and then they will be feared once again by those who would do us all harm. Think back 40 years - you would have to be almost insane to go up against the KGB - and that "respect" needs to once again be restored to the CIA. To my mind - way too many people are ungrateful for what the US has brought to the world - and of course no-one is perfect, but they have done way more good than harm. Prior to Sept 11 the US were the largest donors of aid to Afghanistan - while their fellow Muslim brothers and sisters in Saudi, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Indonesia,... couldn't really give a damn about the plight of the Afghani refugees who fled the fundamentalist Muslim "paradise" of pre-Sept 11 Afghanistan. Israel is not going away - despite the Arab efforts of 1967 and 1973 - and the Arabs have to start looking at themselves for the causes of their own internal problems, but the easy way out is to deflect potential domestic dissent, and simply blame the West for everything. In Saudi unemployment is high amongst the young - yet the Royal Family is very wealthy - but Saudi Arabia as a country has debt problems. How can that be? Fifty years from now - when the dependence on oil will be much less than it is now, due to new technologies coming on line - the Arab states will once again return to the back waters they once were. All their oil wealth will be long gone... David :)