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

To: h0db who wrote (135078)	5/31/2004 12:13:43 PM
From: Sarmad Y. Hermiz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

>> These are the people the West had been counting on to buy into our lifestyle. Instead, they flew planes into buildings, killing thousands. There is another wrinkle that most people miss. Which is that many many people in the middle east resent and hate the US. But the reason that only religious fanatics carry out attacks is that there is no earthly escape for the attackers. Therefore only people who strongly believe in an after life will be motivated enough to carry out a suicidal attack. And obviously those are the overt religionists. The rest will seethe with rage. Be passive sympathizers. But they will not make an overt attack, unless they are personally motivated. That is why the torture and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners is such a bad tactical mistake. Iraqi's have no history of religious self-sacrifice. But revenge is a very powerful motivation. And that is why in my opinion the heavy-handed US occupation is doomed. And so is any US presence in Iraq, unless something visible and dramatic is done to win over the population. Otherwise US casualties will keep increasing.

To: h0db who wrote (135078)	5/31/2004 1:45:33 PM
From: Dennis O'Bell	Respond to of 281500

...take a look at the leaders of the 9/11 attack-- middle class or affluent, Western-educated, and technically proficient. These are the people the West had been counting on to buy into our lifestyle. Instead, they flew planes into buildings, killing thousands. The head 9/11 hijacker was a sick puppy who was ripe for the kinds of brainwashing he got from his "leaders" who would never sacrifice their own children for such projects. Normal mentally healthy people don't leave behind instructions that no women should touch their body or be present for burial. A good number of the "personnel" on the 9/11 attack, conveniently weren't told it was a suicide mission. Mentally ill mass murderers have always been with us, though they're fortunately fairly rare, and in the past haven't had technology to leverage from so the damage has been limited. The 9/11 terrorists are about as representative of the real desires of Arabs or Muslims as Tim McVeigh was representative of the desires of the average American. Our society (and borders for that matter) are still so open that if this were not the case, there would be terrorism here in the US every single day, and not just a lot of propaganda from Al Jazeera, or actions by "insurgents" in Iraq.