PD, thank you so much for your posts. As I don’t have the time to write all that I’d love to say, I’ll be brief and to the point(s).
– PS, this thread and those like it are exactly why I suggested we refrain from political discussion. Here we have a thread supposedly on property tax, and now the majority of the posts here are regarding politics/foreign policy. I agree RE does not fuction in a vaccum, but you’d be hard pressed to say this thread, like so many others, has not been highjacked. This highjacking seems to becoming more common, and, I believe that often you are the first to steer the posts off into politics/foreign policy. This is in no intended as an attack, merely an observation.
– “Just abandon Isreal and the world will love us”
This worked out so well for both Poland and the world when Hitler fixed his eye on the Sudatenland. “We need breeding room!” he cried. “Well, we don’t want a fight, so lets just give it to him so he’s happy,” said the world/League of Nations. Anyone remembered what followed? What do you think would happen to Isreal and its people if the US offically withdrew support? What would Palastine (Hamas, Fatah, PLO, Islamic Jihad), al Quada, Iran, etc do? Call for more peaceful “cultural understanding?”
– “What we need is more education, more international travel, more understanding”
This is a wonderfully feel-good sentement that works in some regards and fails miserably in others. I’m fairly well traveled for my age, having visited a dozen or so other countries. I’m no where near my folks in this regard, who have circled the world twice since Y2K and can’t agree on how many countries they have been to in that time (I think it’s something like 60-70… if they can’t keep count I sure can’t). Much of this travel has been “off the beaten path” in places ranging from Kenya, South Africa, Isreal, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Uzbekistan, China, Russia, India, small pacific kingdoms, etc etc etc. Neither of my folks has love of war, particuarly my rather liberal mother. What they have directly seen in key Muslim countries has made them both very sad. They have seen the schools were young Muslims are made to memorize the Koran, with emphasis on jihad and the command to kill the infidel (aka non-Muslim) and reclaim all land ever controlled by Islam. They have watched as the children are taught to demonize westerners and all things non-Muslim. To claim that we lack understanding of their culture is to completely misunderstand the struggle in which we are involved. Perhaps, and this is a big perhaps, the struggle could be peacibly resolved if they understood the rest of the world better. Perhaps… but this would require a not-too-small overhaul of a world religion. Assuming this has merit, how do we go about increasing the information availible to Muslims in direct competition to such indoctrination? Internet, print, TV, student visas, etc. All things we are trying to do… although I would argue that the political leanings of much of the free world print and TV results in propoganda better spun for the jihadi intrests than for the improvement of Muslim understanding of western culture.
-“France, Germany, Russia, China aren’t worried/are doing business, so why should we worry?”
Look into the history of the UN’s Oil for Food program for an easy example of why we should worry
-“Germany, Switzerland, etc spends more on social programs and less on military”
Many of these countries are basically defended by US bases. Have you compared the average economic growth of these countries to ours? Hint: social welfare programs are a heavy burden on a nation’s economy.
