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Originally Posted by AVoiceOfReason
I tend to agree that the folks that are being schooled by the terrorists as young children are brainwashed and the only way to ultimately get a handle on this is to have the education changed. Unfortunately, those in charge of the school teaching hate and terror aren't going to hand over the keys to the academies without a fight. I think that's part of the overall plan in Iraq and Afghanistan, isn't it? Get the schools in the hands of someone that isn't looney. If the local governments of Saudi, Libya, Iran, Syria, etc. can get control of the problem, great--and our willingness to do it if they won't is going to be a prime motivator for them to do so.
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In my view, this strategy would involve having Western nations invade additional muslim countries. While I don't have any sort of moral objection to invading autocracies and transforming them into democracies, I have to say that there are some significant practical barriers to this strategy. To begin, some democratization efforts are bound to fail: witness how much faster western efforts are proceeding in Afghanistan versus Iraq. If we were to attempt to democratize, say, ten countries, I think the odds of at least one dreaded "quagmire" occurring are better than one would hope.
Furthermore, the West simply lacks the resources to conduct so many invasions. I fear that the United States and Co. are simply incapable of pulling off such a transformation. And if you think that invading one or two countries would set off a chain reaction of democratization in the Middle East... well, at the very least, it takes several years.
