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Originally Posted by Ustwo
What worries me this isn't desperate terrorism, but martyrdom. The 9/11 hijackers were not desperate men, they were not from the impoverished masses attempting to make their people free. I'd be less worried if it were terrorism like the IRA, that I can rationalize, that makes 'sense' from a Western viewpoint, but when young people with bright futures commit acts of suicide terrorism in the name of God, its a whole other animal.
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1) The 9/11 hijackers were not typical of Islamic suicide operatives.
2) I'm not saying that all Muslims who are seduced into terrorism are impoverished, just that they fall prey to the desperate elements of a culture that is acutely disenfranchised. By desperate I mean they are a people who have watched the rest of the world leave them behind while their societies atrophied under religious and political oppression with no avenues to affect change from within. And, yes, it has been further complicated by religious radicalism, but can you truly say that under like conditions that Christianity could never be likely radicalized? I would beg to differ.
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IF the 'moderate' Muslims who I would assume understand it can not control it, what choice does the US and the West have besides taking measures to protect ourselves? Being that we wish to remain an open society, those measures will need to be proactive, not reactive, aka war.
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The US has choices. I firmly believe that we have finally reached a point where the old way of meeting challenges (ie, relying on our military dominance) has reached an end. And I think, as much as I disagree with them on most issues about the war, that the Bush administration is at least beginning to understand this. Paradoxically, the old way is only creating more and more fodder for the radical resistance. They had it right when they said they wanted to "capture their hearts and minds." They just really suck at it.