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To: Hawkmoon who wrote (106147)	1/6/2010 8:10:46 PM
From: Skeeter Bug	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

>>Now maybe you, and others, believe that all of this Islamic Militancy is nothing more than some global corporate conspiracy. Who's to say?<< the data. the data says that the vast majority of muslim backlash are the ones forking them over the most. that would be us. right or wrong, our actions will only direct more terrorism our way - not less. the data bares this out. obama escalates the wars and we get a couple terrorist attempts in return. quid pro quo. you can pretend that killing people and creating 2 million refugees improves attitudes towards this nation, but it doesn't and the data bares this out. i look at the data, not the fear mongering. ps - why aren't these radicals attacking canada?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (106147)	1/7/2010 12:20:07 AM
From: Unalakleet	3 Recommendations Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116555

Hawkmoon, clearly you are right. The primary motivation behind the radical Muslim's hatred of the West is religion. This, however, is very difficult for people in America to understand. Even the most religious in America don't hold a candle to the kind of ferocious religiosity that many, many people have in the Middle East and parts of Africa. Yes, yes, yes, Skeeter, the (shameful) killing of innocent sons and daughters by American forces has exacerbated the Islamic world's hatred of the West, but (hang on to your seat) this is certainly not what motivates the Islamists. It is all about religion (and its close cousin, culture). The Muslim world has been feeling the pinch of Democracy and Capitalism for decades now and it is slowly destroying an Islamic culture that is Tribal (with a capital T), clan oriented, obsessively patriarchal, and pious beyond anything Americans can comprehend. For Islamists, this is a fight to the death. The West is destroying their religion and culture and they won't go down without a fight. And there's nothing worse than a fight over religion. What I find strange is both Patty Murray (ultra-liberal from Washington State) and Ron Paul (ultra-conservative-bordering on Libertarian) have both suggested that America needs to reflect on what it has done to the Muslim world in order to understand why so many Muslims hate us. Of course, the very existence of the West is what's been done to the Muslim world. In the minds of the Islamist, the West hasn't done any one thing. The very existence of the West is the problem. This is another thing that Americans have a hard time understanding. The reason the Islamists don’t target Canada is simple. They know that America has the starting pitchers and the rest of the Western world is simply the bullpen. The United States, for better or worse, has been the catalyst for change since WWII, cajoling and sometimes forcing democratic and capitalistic institutions on to country after country, to include Europe and China. American ideas are so powerful that even countries that have defeated America on the battlefield have come to largely adopt them. It is the US that needs to be stopped. The US is the engine. Not Canada. Or Italy. Having said all this, it was certainly a serious mistake to attack Iraq. It was the wrong battlefield and many innocent Iraqis lost their lives. The West can win this war against radical Islam, but it can't be stupid or impose Orwellian political and economic systems on its own people to defeat it. As some have mentioned, America is quickly reaching the tipping point (and may already be there) on spending the country into a Depression. The issues are complex and must be negotiated carefully, but I'm afraid withdrawing from this fight is not an option. If the Islamists get a nuclear weapon, they will use it. No doubt about it.