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

To: skinowski who wrote (117675)	10/25/2003 4:11:58 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

OK, let me clarify. To be sure there will always be some ideological nut cases who will choose the path of destruction. Even in US we have had our own share fanatics. But this is not the problem. The problem is the appeal of such groups and their ability to garner support from the masses. It is that captive audience which makes the likes of OBL dangerous. We are ripping what we've planted in decades past. Regardless of what you think of the politics of the cold war era (or whatever else era you'd like to pick), the fact remains that the present is an extension of the past and the future will be formed by the decisions we make in the present. The rise of Islamist Extremism is not so much due to what they have to offer but due to the failures of every other political faction in those countries to defend the population against their corrupt regimes. Regimes which without exception we have supported and continue to support. Time and again we have shown we prefer a friendly dictator over anything else. After all, the friendly dictator can do whatever we ask him to do, but a democracy will have checks and balances that will prevent it from siding with us at all times. You are completely correct in that the real target of these movements is their own governments. This is another way of saying America is not the real target. We are a target by proxy; people despise their government but cannot change it because of our support, therefore they will end up despising us as well. Nothing injects a healthy dose of reality into revolutionary zeal like winning. That is when the hard job of building and managing begins and suddenly theoretical dogma proves inadequate. The best example of this in modern times is Iran. So long as its people saw US as the power behind their regime, we were the Great Satan. A generation later, the Iranian population is the most pro-US in the region not because we have done them any favors, but because they no longer blame us for the shortcomings of their regime. Another example along these lines, though not as extensive, are the Iraqi Kurds. And although I have no first hand knowledge of this, from what I have heard, Viet Nam is another country which having been left alone for a generation, its population is not anti-american anymore. I just don't see why it should be any different with Afghanistan, or Pakistan, or Saudi, or anywhere else. ST PS I am not opposed to supporting Israel. I just need to know that we come out a net winner for that support. Nobody has ever explained to me why we should be so supportive of Israel that we are no longer distinguished from them outside of America.