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Posted
I believe that shift was initiated by people who decided to strap bombs to themselves and blow civilians up.

 

of course, and their purpose was exactly that we militarize our societies and bloody score of innocents in their lands. result? the london bombers are totally homegrown and every brown person in london feels like a potential target. i doubt you can call that progress ...

Posted

what i know pretty much for certain is that bin forgotten certainly expected GW to react exactly the way he did. everybody else knew what GW was going to do and bl is many bad things but certainly not a complete moron.

 

as for cause and solution, the entire world but us seems to know that our foreign policy is the problem.

Posted

well, do you know of anything more relevant than the geopolitics of oil? our buddying to dictatorships? our support of zionism? our financing and training of islamo-fascism to destabilize the soviets?

 

hey, if you can think of anything else rational i am all ears ... (the hating our freddom bullshit won't do)

Posted

Here are the basic goals of US foreign policy:

 

Protecting the safety and freedom of all American citizens, both within the United States and abroad.

Defense policy and procurement decisions related to force posture.

Promotion of peace, freedom (most notably of speech and enterprise), and democracy in all regions of the world.

Furthering free trade, unencumbered by tariffs, interdictions and other economic barriers, and furthering capitalism in order to foster economic growth and thus improve living conditions everywhere.

Bringing developmental and humanitarian aid to foreign peoples in need.

 

 

Now, which part is *the* problem?

Posted

LOL i am not too sure where our support of the shah of iran, saddam hussein in the 80's and arming of bin laden (just for starters) fits in that fairy tale of yours.

Posted
Here are the basic goals of US foreign policy:

 

Protecting the safety and freedom of all American citizens, both within the United States and abroad.

Defense policy and procurement decisions related to force posture.

Promotion of peace, freedom (most notably of speech and enterprise), and democracy in all regions of the world.

Furthering free trade, unencumbered by tariffs, interdictions and other economic barriers, and furthering capitalism in order to foster economic growth and thus improve living conditions everywhere.

Bringing developmental and humanitarian aid to foreign peoples in need.

 

 

Now, which part is *the* problem?

 

I agree with pretty much all of those goals. But they are NOT the actual goals of any Neocon administration. If our policies really aligned with those goals, we’d be far better off.

 

Much of recent US foreign policy has directly conflicted with those goals. I would suggest that our de facto policy has been to support unsavory regimes when expedient to ensure continued access to other country's energy resources and to protect our export markets. The last thing our administration wants is a democratically elected Islamic or Socialist country with popular support. Democracy’s only fine as long as they’re with “us” and follow our model.

 

Our security has not increased with recent events, our alliances with the Israel and the House of Saud have blown up in our faces and our administration has repeatedly supported protectionist measures to the detriment of our economy (think steel, softwood, sugar, textiles).

 

Our aid policies have been designed to indebt developing countries for our leverage as well as to provide revenues to American consulting and engineering firms. See “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” by John Perkins for a surprising take on our economic relationships with other countries.

Posted

The root cause of terrorism is not hard to figure out.

 

If angry young men (and sometimes women) can be mobilized through religious or nationalistic notions to see striking out at civilians as a "just cause," and heroic martyrdom has religious payback, then you can probably gather a pool of willing participations. For the terrorist leader, the desired outcome is to provoke a disproportionate response to the act to galvanise his apathetic middle-of-the-road people into supporting his cause.

 

I don't believe for a moment that Bin Laden's objective was any other than to provoke the US into Middle East invasions to galvanize support for a caliphate. He doesn't give a shit about whether we are scared to go to the mall or take a bus. We are just an evil foil that is dancing to his tune. He's had no reason to direct a US attack, because we're doing what he wants us to do quite well, thank you.

 

I'm all for going after Bin Laden and having his head on a stick, even if that would make him a martyr. But while we're at it, we should disengage from Middle Eastern allances that conflict with our constitutional precepts, and provide leadership by setting a good example of the benefits of law, political and economic freedom, and democracy.

Posted
What is your hangup with justifying shit?

 

it's a small world? if i am unfair, i am unaware of it? overgrown sense of morality? i really don't know, sorry.

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