Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna
Regarding the Middle East, Isreal, Palestine, Sunnis, Shia' etc., there have been all kinds of criticisms of what the strategy of the Bush administration was, and now what the Obama strategy is, even though they are somewhat different. There are prognostications of what will work but far more often, what won't.
But we're left with the same problem, it seems. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. It's members are spreading around the globe--to Europe, Africa, the U.S., and Canada. The birth rate of Muslims is in the range of four times that of any other religion or ethnic group. In a few decades, they will be both a political and religious force to be reckoned with. They're already an increasing unsettling force thruout the western world because of their willingness to kill themselves in order to kill many others as a demonstration of their faith. That fact is undeniable.
The "problem with Islam" is worsened by the fact that a huge amount of the oil that we import comes from the Middle East, and there are no other reasonable alternatives sources to supply the U.S. with oil in that quantity. The imbalance of trade as the result leaves Saudi Arabia awash with U.S. dollars. Along with China, the Saudis have become one of the largest buyers of U.S. debt in the world.
At the same time, there is serious unrest in the Islamic homelands in the Middle East. The existence of Israel is a canker right in the middle of Islam. Muslims and Jews will likely never get along with one another. The U.S. is hated by Islam because of our steadfast support of Israel. Islamic fundamentalist hatred has exhibited itself in the numerous jihadist attacks on western and U.S. interests and people in recent years. Israel is becoming far less willing to cooperate with the U.S., while still expecting our money and security provided by our military and the weapons we sell them. The ease of travel, the information available on the internet, and very porous borders in most western countries will almost certainly result in more terrorist attacks. It's only a matter of time, it seems.
So if some disagree with the Bush strategy, and others now disagree with the Obama strategy, then what is the correct strategy to begin to minimize the threat of terrorism? What strategy should be used to assure the flow of oil and dollars back to the U.S. from the Middle East? The "problem" is not going away. In fact, as I said above, it's getting bigger as Islam grows and spreads.
So, if we don't like the approach taken by our most recent two Presidents and our last two majority political administrations...then what would YOU do to address the problem? That seems like a logical question to me.
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The reason Islam is the "fastest growing religion" is they are out-procreating the so-called Christians and Jews. Islam only agrees to abortion when the mother's life is at risk, while so-called Christians and Jews are killing off over a million a year via abortion just in the USA for nothing more than staving off inconvenience. That's why the USA's population has "grayed" so much over the last three decades, the Social Security Fund has reduced and illegal aliens fill the workforce void created by the "missing young." So, here we have another one of those "unintended consequences" of abortion. If the live-birth differential between Muslims and Christians/Jews continues with such a disparity, and it is just a few decades away from minority-to-majority, and we are letting it happen through our own "Pro-Choice" mentality, then we get what we deserve.
As as far as "serious unrest in the Islamic homelands," there always has been. It's no better now than ever before, and in truth, Israel is not helping the matter by virtually expanding its borders by building more settlements and filling them with recruited Russian and other immigrants. The Arabs are just as guilty with their failure to do much in the way of quality-of-life support to the border areas and aid to refugees there. So, both sides have unclean hands in all of this. And that is all the more reason for the US to be neutral from here on out, and stop funding this insanity at the annual tune of $2.5Billion to Israel and $2.0Billion to Egypt/WestBank/Gaza. Israel will continue to be arrogant to its Arab neighbors, as long as the US is there to defend Israel unconditionally and subsidize the arrogance, and the Arabs will continue to keep the border areas in turmoil through population incitement despite US aid as long as that tactic will work as a counter.
So, if there is ever going to be peace with honor in the MidEast, the parties need to be honorable. Neither has been nor will be as long as outsiders are in the economic and military picture.
As far as Iraq and Afghanistan are concerned, we are not in the "nation-building" business. That's the UN's job to oversee that. Let the UN send all the "peacekeepers" it wants there (and we'll even subsidize them), as we have accomplished all of the conventional military goals. As far as "anti-terrorism" is concerned, the Iraqis and Afghans just need to know that if the same problem occurs as what brought the US there continues or happens again, don't expect the UN peacekeepers to get in our way as we defend ourselves.
Eventually, we need to recognize that the US Military cannot solve every problem everywhere, and that even Sun Tzu warned that you cannot deploy troops indefinitely. The troops have already won, as the safer homeland now exists, and it's up to the international reconstructionists to make Iraq and Afghanistan become good international neighbors. We can always go back, kick butt again, and leave to let them try to get it right again. It's a vicious circle, but it does work better than siege warfare with a long supply line.