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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (240449)	7/7/2005 4:15:43 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1583327

Nonetheless, there is nothing that can be done. The die have been cast. For some time, we have been moving to the same place that holds the Israelis and the Palestinians. We are pretty much there now. This looks like the beginning of a long holy war. I am sensing near despair in your post and I believe I feel much the same way. You know why I feel a bit despaired? It's not just that at this point, we seem to be losing the war on terror. That can always be reversed by a good leader who unites the world against terror. My sense of despair does not come from losing the war on terror. It comes from the fact that its not winnable and the people in power refuse to recognize that fact. What has me despaired is that I think there is something in the nature of our enemy which cannot be negotiated with. Its not something in their nature......its the fact they are ideologues. Ideologues are people who have become radicalized usually by events, or certain people in their lives. They tend to be idealists who have gone amok. They recognize that their agenda is radicalized. However, the ends justify the means with these people. That's why fair negotiations or rational behavior do not play big roles in their lives. They don't want anything from us, except to destroy us. First they wanted us to stay out of their business. At that time, they had bigger fish to fry......the princes of Saudi Arabia. American support of Saddam in the 1980s and bases in Saudi Arabia after the Kuwaiti war served as irritants but still their focus was on Saudi Arabia. The Iraqi war has changed all that. Bush has taken the focus off of the princes of SA and put it on us. Now we are the target and the focus of their anger. They have turned this into a holy war between Islam and Christianty. And Bush's religious supporters are responding in like kind. They come from a virulent ideology and have plenty of funding from Muslim governments and from wealthy Muslims. In addition, they have popular backing. Most Muslim people rate Osama as a hero. Yup. Could that be a little of why you are despaired? That we are fighting an enemy that cannot be mollified nor negotiated with, and as such, it means we have no choice but to keep fighting for decades until that enemy or us perishes completely? Yes, but its more than that......they are an enemy that can't be destroyed. Its not like you invade Poland first taking the smaller cities like Krachow and Gdansk and then marching into Warsaw, imposing martial law once the Poles have been conquered. There is no there to the al Qa'ida there. They are everywhere and nowhere. There is not a lot of infrastructure.....families with kids that have to be moved......so they are very mobile. And new recruits are to be had with every American killing of Iraqi insurgents. Their constituency is 1.3 billion people most of whom are living in poverty.....fertile grounds for revolution but instead of revolting against their own leaders, the rich West has become the oppressor substitute. In their minds, we are worse than their dictatorial leaders. So, then, every kid or young guy without a job who has a fire in his belly looks to al Qa'ida for a kind of redemption. Bush has committed the US to this holy war but the US can't fight like al Qa'ida.......on the cheap. Its costing us huge billions as well as valuable human life. If this war goes on for decades, it could break the bank and the American way of life. That's why I border on despair. The quality leaders we need to be in place are not. We have leaders who are minor ideologues in their own right with supporters who are enflamed by religion much like the Islamic fundamentalists. How can anything good come out of such a prescription? ted

To: RetiredNow who wrote (240449)	7/7/2005 6:02:34 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1583327

"I think there is something in the nature of our enemy which cannot be negotiated with. They don't want anything from us, except to destroy us. They come from a virulent ideology and have plenty of funding from Muslim governments and from wealthy Muslims. In addition, they have popular backing. Most Muslim people rate Osama as a hero. Could that be a little of why you are despaired? That we are fighting an enemy that cannot be mollified nor negotiated with, and as such, it means we have no choice but to keep fighting for decades until that enemy or us perishes completely?" Yuk, what a thought. I fear you are correct.