To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (34930 ) 7/24/2002 3:41:41 PM From: Bilow Read Replies (2) | Respond to Hi Jacob Snyder; Re: "1. Energy: a Manhattan Project-type program ... " Wishful thinking. As long as there is cheap oil available, a program to replace it with expensive alternatives is dead.2. Palestine: forcing Israel to withdraw from almost all their West Bank settlements ... " This would be a good idea, but I doubt it's possible for the US to do this, particularly with the Israeli government as it is today. The Israelis will probably move on their own as soon as they get their fences built.3. continuing to help Israel militarily defeat Hamas. There can be no compromise with them, they must be destroyed. " We are doing nothing to help Israel now against Hamas, and I doubt that there is anything useful we can or will do in the future. For that matter, Hamas is not being defeated. Immigration into Israel is decreasing, and the US just came down on Israel for killing too many civilians. These are the stepping stones of Hamas policy. For them, the suicide bombing is working just fine.4. encourage an exchange of populations ... " The fancy name for this "ethnic cleansing", and it's a war crime.5. War On Terrorism: we need to use U.S. soldiers on the ground, in numbers as large as necessary, rather than using proxies, or we'll never find our enemies. ... " It's the US soldiers on the ground that motivate the local populations to support terrorism. Support for the US in Moslem countries is highest in those places that have the least US presence. Stationing lots of young American males with weapons in these countries will simply breed more support for terror. When there is a situation where we can quickly use our overwhelming military force to oppose another military force we should do so, but out army will never be worth a tinker's dam against civilians. In short, it is impossible for us to win the hearts and minds of people using weapons. We can use weapons to support the people who already have given us their hearts and minds, but against civilian populations that dislike us, the military is useless. What wins hearts and minds is stuff like Nike, Intel and McDonalds, where the real strength of the United States exists.6. we need to get serious about addressing the underlying social/economic conditions in Islamic countries, that provides support for Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and Hamas. " This is true, but the way to do it is to allow them to export their products to us. Trying to use young men with guns to "dry up the ocean" that supports ill will against us is hopeless. What we need to do is to use the weapon that we used to destroy the Soviet Union, trade.
