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: Sun Tzu who wrote (141258)	7/25/2004 1:45:41 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

A young population means change. But change can be for the better or for the worse. There is an opportunity to direct this change for the better, but I just don't see the current US policy conceiving such out of the box thinking. I think you're wrong. The very fact that Islamic militants have taken to justifying the killing muslims in order to disrupt the westernization/moderating of Iraq is indicative of this.. They had expected that it would only be a matter of time until the existing regimes were forced to subjugate themselves to the hardline clerics brainwashing the youth of the region. After all, if there was no emphasis, or iniative, to open up the existing dictatorships and totalitarian states, it would become a fait accompli to replace the existing ones with religious totalitarianism. But now US policy is directly involved in facing down the militants and actively seeking to provide a different vision of the future for the Iraqi people, if not the entire region.. And the militants know that NOW they will have to not only kill Americans, but those muslims who would seek to entertain western thoughts.. And this results in Muslims being shaken out of this delusion that Islamic militancy is some respectable vision that they could find acceptable. It reveals the Islamists as the intolerant extremists that they are.. People who will kill anyone they find religiously, or politically objectionable, including muslims.. It was no different when the Saudis used the Ihkwan (Muslim Brotherhood) to drive the Hashemites out of the Hijaz (Mecca and Medina). They killed anyone who opposed them.. Sunnis, Shiites, Sufis, Christians, and of course, Jews... Even here in the US, where demographics are not as bad as Japan or Europe, whites will be a minority within a decade. Well, since I believe America represents a nation of ideals and values, not ethnicities, I don't have such a problem with that. I've dated Hispanics, Asians, Blacks, Europeans (no French, thank god.. ;0).. who cares?? What I care about is that we share the same ideals and that people who come to this country, whatever religious and ethnic perspective they personally adher to, that they don't supercede their responsibility to uphold the constitution, and the values represented therein, of the United States.. And you know something? Most of the Iraqis, and Arabic translators (most US citizens) I have discussed this with, absolutely agree.. And you know something else.. Most of them want to live in the US someday.. Including this Shiite gal I was speaking with this afternoon.. We had a fascinating discussion about the commonalities and differences between Christianity and Islam.. There is a strong well of "live and let live" evident here in Iraq.. And many of them are becoming very fed up with the Islamist mentality. And for a nation with the social and economic potential of Iraq, that's very encouraging. Hawk