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 : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (84769)	9/16/2008 8:15:41 AM
From: Travis_Bickle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541582

Okay let me get this straight. Most of the guys who drove the planes into the buildings were Saudis. We are currently fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. To my knowledge, there is no fighting going on in Saudi Arabia. Also I believe there are quite a few Saudis in the U.S. With the recent influx of Saudi Arabian students sponsored by their government, many American campuses have scrambled to become more attractive to this growing cohort. Very suddenly, says Susan Sutton, associate dean for the Office of International Affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, “There became a visible Middle Eastern presence when we hadn’t had such a presence in awhile.” Two years since the Saudi government scholarship program started and thousands of Saudi students at U.S. campuses later, the interest in better supporting the Saudi Arabian student population – and averting any backlash to their presence in large numbers in unexpected places like Missoula, Montana – remains high. “In addition to reaching out to them in a proactive sense, one could easily state that we’ve reached out to the campus as a whole practically,” says Brian Lofink, the liaison for international programs at the University of Montana. “It’s a two-way street.” insidehighered.com So the thesis is that by fighting the Saudi Arabian terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq, where they aren't, we are avoiding fighting them in the U.S., where they are.

To: Lane3 who wrote (84769)	9/16/2008 10:01:04 AM
From: Cogito	Respond to of 541582

>>In the strategy to fight them "there," "there" means "elsewhere" or "abroad," someplace other than our homeland. Iraq turned out to be one of the locations where the fighting has occurred but it could have been anywhere that wasn't "here." The idea was to stop attacks on our soil so Americans could feel comfortable going to malls and football games once again, which they do. And so that Bush could avoid further scary attacks on his watch, which he seemed to want more than anything else. By keeping terrorists occupied elsewhere, they're not here.<< Karen - Again, if we want to fight "them" there, we have to go where "they" are. Since terrorists don't gather themselves in large groups and wait for armies to show up to fight them, that's a strategy that is not useful in fighting terrorism. And since the "they" who attacked us weren't in Iraq at all, ever, it is just not sensible, to me, to justify our adventure there on that basis. - Allen

To: Lane3 who wrote (84769)	9/16/2008 11:13:41 AM
From: Steve Lokness	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541582

Lane3; The idea was to stop attacks on our soil so Americans could feel comfortable going to malls and football games once again, which they do Reminds me of the strategy of a turtle. When afraid it just hides in its shell - in America. As I see it the problem with your thinking is that Americans might be able to go to the mall - but what about those of us who want to go visit other parts of the world? I have many friends who use to visit Iran and Iraq, would you visit there today? If you were ever afraid of going to the mall and to football games, then you should still be afraid today. We were hit by terrorist of one kind or another long before the fruitcakes from Afghanistan and we will be hit by terrorist again. If you allowed yourself to be afraid to go to the mall, then you have let BinLaden win. Fear is completely irrational. steve

To: Lane3 who wrote (84769)	9/16/2008 7:00:04 PM
From: Win Smith	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541582

But there was no evidence of any terrorists in Iraq when W got the war of his heart's desire. I think it's an extremely specious claim to say that starting a war with Iraq was supposed to draw terrorists there instead of here. By all indications, it was supposed to be a quick in-out demonstration of might. Claiming that the mess they made in Iraq was somehow redeemed because we ended up fighting a bunch of terrorists there seems a bit contrived. I'd say the biggest reason there hasn't been further attacks inside the US is much tighter security and a shakeup of the intelligence agencies. Which has nothing at all to do with the mess in Iraq, and arguably was made more difficult by the resources sucked up by that war.