Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: unclewest who wrote (36533)	3/28/2004 10:36:16 AM
From: carranza2	Respond to of 793879

I predict a cataclysmic end to this war in some years down the road also...But imho it is much too soon to declare the winner. I fear this outcome, too. But it is absolutely not inevitable. The other outcome I see is similar to the end of the Cold War, one in which the internal contradictions of Islamist militancy finally allow moderate Muslims to see it for the silly, deluded death cult it is. They then take steps, much like Soviet reformers did to hardline Communists, to disarm the insane. The WOT is a much different matter than the Cold War. Nebulous, phantasmagoric, and irrational. Plus, instead of the hardliners being in charge of the apparatus of war as was the case in the Cold War, the Islamist true believers are on the fringe. They can't be pressured economically or diplomatically. Their weapons budget is a pittance compared to any state's. How does anyone deal with this kind of threat? At the end of the day, in my estimation it is a battle for Muslim hearts and minds. In my view, we have to do the following, in no special order of importance: 1.- Increase Special Forces in a huge way and fight the Islamists like they fight us, down and dirty. 2.- We apply economic and diplomatic pressure to countries that can help in much the same manner as the pressure presently being applied to Pakistan. 3.- We try to resolve the Pal/Israeli conflict in good faith, something that may be impossible to do. Nonetheless, we've got to try and keep trying, even when failure and frustration is the only result. Before any Muslim hearts and minds can flip to our side, they've got to see and believe that we will pressure Israel when it is appropriate to do so, that we are not playing favorites. 4.- We've got to stick to our guns In Iraq. Reconstruct and protect it. This is a very critical element of the plan, as I see it. It means sending more troops now in order to keep the peace and to ensure that it can survive as a democracy.