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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bald Eagle who wrote (749616)	9/19/2006 12:23:05 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

Re: "Can the West defeat the Islamist threat?" OF COURSE WE CAN. (Should not even be all that difficult, compared to other threats and problems that have been overcome in history, though it will take time to play out). We hold most of the 'high cards' in our hand already. The main thing to do is first: stop shooting ourselves in the foot. ('When you find yourself in a hole... the first thing to do is stop digging.) The rest will come quite naturally: Message 22824025

To: Bald Eagle who wrote (749616)	9/19/2006 12:30:20 PM
From: pompsander	Respond to of 769670

I heard Selbourne give a presentation a couple of months ago...he is a very compelling speaker and he handled the questions from his audience (some of which were from the "progressives" he criticizes most loudly) quite handily. The one place he seemed to stumble in my view, was in a lengthy discussion with a muslim audience member who challenged him on the fact that Islam is not a religion and that there are, in fact, tens of millions of muslims who want an alternative to either jihadist dominance from one side and simple catagorization of all Islam as sub-human (my word) by some in the west. The audience member challenged Selbourne on what steps had been taken by recent administrations, particularly the current one, to build support for non-extremist muslims throughout the world. The audience member went on long and strong on the popular notion that the misadventure in Iraq had done more to undercut the moderate Islamic core than anything America could have done except "capture Mecca". The speaker went on with the long laundry list of poor planning, non-native speakers, naive expectations, lack of cultural appreciation, etc. He had Selbourne on the defensive on most of these points becasue Selbourne could not explain how, with recent events as to the realities in Iraq, why this was not causing a problem for moderate Islamists. Selbourne and this individual had a very civil and intelligent conversation for about ten minutes. It was one of the most interesting and informative analysis of this subject I had ever seen.

To: Bald Eagle who wrote (749616)	9/19/2006 8:36:54 PM
From: PROLIFE	Respond to of 769670

3) Indeed, the third reason why Islam will not be defeated, as things stand, is the low level of Western leadership, in particular in the United States. During the half-century of the Islamic revival, it has shown itself at sixes and sevens both diplomatically and militarily. It has been without a sense of strategic direction, and been unable to settle upon coherent war plans. It has even lacked the gifts of language to make its purposes plain. Or, as Burke put it in March, 1775, “a great empire and little minds go ill together”. In this war with Islam, if it is a war, the combination bodes defeat. typical pinhead writer. The only reason that the Mid east is NOT a parking lot of glass, is because of namby pamby Europeans and namby pamby liberal politicos.