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Actually Stevo... those aren't the people I am talking about when I say we need diplomacy.
I am talking about strengthening ties to the millions of moderate Muslims. I am talking about reaching out to the people who are being taught by these ignorant Immams that spread the hate.
Part of the reason why they have some much power in the first place is that the nations like Iran (prior to the revolution) and Saudia Arabia have been propped up by the Western powers. Free Speech and freedome of assciation have been squashed out of existance, except in the Mosques.
Moderate voices in Iran were silenced in the face of their inability to combat the US led coup of Mossadegh. They were seen as ineffective. At the same time any public debate was squashed.
When the revolution came about in Iran it could be traced back to the coup of Mossadegh and the support of the increasingly tyrannical Shah.
In Saudia Arabia there have been a few attempts at democratic reform (reform in general) but those were squashed by the House of Saud who let's the more fundamentalist Immam's get away with what they want in order to maintain an unsteady hold on power.
Neither of these situations would exist without the west's support. Why the support? Oil.
I am not blaming it all on the West. I am saying that our need of oil and love of oil profits has lead us to continue to want remain in the Middle East. Because of its strategic importance to, well, everything in the West, we have often taken a heavy handed approach and bungled relations. We have aided in the creation of conditions that gave birth to the very terrorists that we now fight.
As I said above. Get used to it. We will never rid ourselves of terrorists. It is the price of doing business the way we continue to do business in that part of the world.
Going to war with it exacerbates the situation. Better to accept that it is going to happen. Police and defend against the inevitable (much like we do with crime) and work better our associations with the people on the ground so that we lessen the conditions that bring about "terrorists" in the first place (most importantly the people the Immam's recruit).
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"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke
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