Comparing what our own homegrown criminals (drug dealers, murderers, etc.) do in this country to an act of war by another group existing in another region is not a valid comparison. However, I am all for better enforcement of our own criminal laws.

All countries have a crime rate. Steal a loaf of bread in Pakistan and they might cut off your hand, or name a Teddy bear Mohammed and they may want to stone you or cut off your head. 170,721 people of our citizens have been killed on America’s highways between 2001 and 2004, also far more than the Islamic terrorists have killed. It is a tragic statistic … but has no relevance.

If we can successfully defeat radical ideas with other tools, more the better. We should be doing that as well. It would shorten the time we have to defend ourselves and be in this War on Terror. I am all for it! But in the mean time, we must protect ourselves and our interests.

Thanks! I will check out the book!

I agree with some of what you are saying although I am not sure they are a dying breed. Contrary to what the NY Times says, the more radical Madrassas (Islamic schools) found in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are creating a whole new generation of terrorists.

An article in Newsweek describes the Jamia Uloom Islamia religious academy in the mountains of Pakistan, where students as young as nine years old “spend most of the day reciting the Qur’an; memorizing every one of its 6,666 verses is the main requirement for graduation.”

This is the sort of thing we should encourage, right? Because surely an immersion in the teachings of the Qur’an will “leave no doubt,” as the Muslim scholar Dr. Jamal Badawi says, that “Islam is a religion of peace and nonviolence.”

Well, unfortunately, Dr. Badawi isn’t an instructor at Jamia Uloom Islamia religious academy. Instead, students “learn civics from a white-bearded scholar named Amanullah, 65, who teaches them about the Taliban. ‘There was a real Islamic regime,’ the old man says. ‘They fixed 25 years of problems in no time, using Islamic laws.’

Another faculty member, Mullah Taj Mohammad, 40, gives a current-events lesson, warning of the evils that lurk in non-Islamic lands: ‘I’ve heard that many Muslim girls have infidel boyfriends—and clink glasses of alcohol with Jews.’ That’s not the worst of it, he says: ‘Americans are killing Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq, and they are busy trying to poison Muslim minds everywhere with films, music and television.’ Abdul is an eager learner. He dreams of enlisting in the jihad against Afghanistan’s U.S.-backed president, Hamid Karzai. ‘Karzai is a killer of Muslims,’ the boy says. ‘When I grow up I’ll fight him, and then we’ll see who’s a man and who’s a woman.’

I have no doubt that these radical Islamists feel disenfranchised and out-of-touch with the modern world and its cultural influences. However, that is the result of choices they have made and influences by their radical fundamentalist religious leaders. Even though I can, on an intellectual level, understand why they feel as do, on a personal level I will not agree that we should meekly sit by and allow them to blow up our cities, murder our peace activists, or gain access to weapons of mass destruction.

Since 1979 Americans have killed, yes with guns, 210,000 of their fellow Americans. A zillion times more effective than the terrorists. So, why don’t we use smart bombs on Chicago, we know where the drug lords live, etc. Because innocent people would be killed. Ah, but our innocent people are worth more than Iraq’s innocent. We feel no pain when they die.

The question is how to fight radical ideas. I would say by being brave and doing what we think is right with the rest of the world. Start living as responsible world citizens. Global warming. Energy hogs. Consumption hogs. Violent society. Homeless. Medical care. We want to export our live style to the rest of the world? First you clean up our act and others will follow. Second, our troops are in 130 countries in the world. Why? Our interests. Our interests that support our life style. Bring troops home, reduce the size of our target. Make other countries step up and bear the economic burden of military action.

Third, take a balanced view on Israel. Israel is often the bad guy but you would never know it from our support. And yes, they are dealing with bad guys, too.

Probably enough of what I think. But as Eisenhower warned us, “beware of the military industrial complex they will run the world one day”. I think Ron Paul would say the day is now.

Robert Odle

I think you’re missing the point. Fundamentalists don’t care about McDonalds as a restaurant, they don’t care about Ford as a car, they don’t care about any of the items we export, the care about the culture we represent as a country.

The great American export is its Culture. This idea does seem a little bit fishy but let me see if I can explain this idea somewhat

The American culture is something which can be universally implemented into other cultures. It is white paper, the color beige, a piece of cheese. It in itself is nothing special. But because we do not specifically say “You are not and can never be a part of our culture”, and that it does not require you to adhere to any single specific belief, it is not heavy. Islamic fundamentalists adhere to the idea that all actions in this life exist only to ensure your eternal soul is saved.

They view your soul as being forever, it will never die or go away, so any pain or death suffered in this physical world is ultimately meaningless when compared to the eternity that is the afterlife. While there are alot of justifications they give for their actions, what I believe really gets under the skins of Islamic zealots is that our society strives harder than any society before it to have comfort in the real-life, instead of requiring we do all actions in the name of the afterlife. That is an extremely simple way of putting it but basically the average American doesn’t worry if walking or singing or talking in a specific way will cause their souls to be sent to damnation forever.

Not only that but our culture is McDonalds, it is Ford, it is baseball and Coca-Cola. None of those things require any subscription to any faith, idea or practice, they are simply products but they are representative of a society which does not live for death. The fear the fundamentalists have which causes them to lash out at us in such a way stems from their inability to fight or claim our culture as bad. They can say “we won’t go to McDonalds” but inside their asking themselves “Why? Its just food. I can still kill myself after a Jumbo Happy Meal.” There is no ritual, there is nothing really gained or lost. Its just an experience. The same with baseball, or TV or clothing. None of these are special in any way shape or form, but when you combine them in a way as we have people who see this extremely different way of living life might want to try it. Its not threatening or scary, its easily acceptable and therein lies the problem fundamentalists see. Its an accepting culture, and if more and more of the world’s population decides to become more interactive with the rest of the world on a human level, rather than a religious level, they might begin to see the utter futility of their fundamentalist ways.

They are a dying breed. There will always be fanatics, there will always be suicide bombers, and there will always be terrorists. Its just a fact of life as a human, but as the world comes more and more together, and less and less things are accepted as “just because” or as things which you absolutely HAVE to believe, the more we mature as a race, the less two-sided we will become. They see that and fear it.

Its easily comparable to a child. As a child, you’re told to eat your broccoli because its good for you. The child asks why, and you tell them to eat it because you said so. The reason for this is two-fold, first of all you might not know yourself and secondly the actual scientific reasoning behind “broccoli=good” is very boring and not something a child cares or wants to know about. All they know is that it is good and therefore they have to do it. As you grow up, you learn the why, the reason behind the goodness of the broccoli and you are able to understand the reasons for eating it. You mature, you learn and you change your idea of the food. I realize comparing Alah or God to broccoli might seem completely idiotic, but the underlying premise if the idea remains solid.

Or maybe not. Who knows. I’m going to watch South Park reruns.

‘Both In One Trench: Saddam’s Secret Terror Documents’

http://www.bothinonetrench.com