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

To: Neocon who wrote (130129)	4/26/2004 3:16:38 PM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Neocon, I don't have any desire to keep covering the same ground with you but I have to take issue with your last sentence. You say, "[a]s I said, this includes suicide bombers, who would very likely lose their enthusiasm if the cause appeared hopeless." This is a remarkable assumption for two reasons. Firstly, it reveals a failure to grasp the realities and complexities of Mideastern culture and, secondly and even more surprisingly, it shows a failure to comprehend the realities and complexities of Western culture. The "suicide bombers" who attacked our country and who attack in Israel are of all shapes and sizes. Some act for the benefit of their families, some for religious reasons, some for the simple but powerful motive of revenge, some because of other reasons, BUT ALL ACT KNOWING THAT THEY WILL BE REVERED AS HEROS BY THEIR COUNTRYMEN. Suicide bombing is an accepted method of achieving heroic status in the Mideast. The hopelessness of the "cause" would impact a rational, calculating suicide bomber but with that rich mix of culture, religion and history and with the strong sense of powerlessness inherent in countries with huge unemployment rates and extreme poverty, your "teach them a lesson" is not likely to make ANY positive impact. I would think it more likely to create a negative impact. The second failure in your argument destroys even the slim chance that we could teach them to "lose their enthusiasm. It's quite simply that they will never conclude that their cause is helpless because the things they are doing will ALWAYS influence the Western decision making process. That's because we are, generally, rational people who make cost/benefit decisions and we WILL input the cost of terrorism into the equation. The terrorist leaders know these things and so should you.