Reply #7: Treating them fairly is a great start

[Taverner]

But not the whole picture...

1 - There are a large amount who hate us because of what we have done to their families, friends, country (bombing it and killing indiscriminately. Iraq, Afghanistan are cases of this). It will take time to heal these wounds, but look at Vietnam - time has healed some of those wounds there. Basically they need their space, much like a bad relationship.

2- There are also a large amount who hate us for our support of Israel. Now, if we got Israel to play fair, that number would shrink some, but there are enough who would still hate us because they are against the very idea of the Israeli state.

3 - But there are also a number of those who were trained in the madrassas and Islamic schools to hate America. This may sound like reactionary talk, but that doesn't detract from the fact that they do. Islamic Fundamentalists have a "convert or die" mentality - not unlike our Christian Fundamentalist assholes who carry the same philosophy. Osama is in this camp.


Again, doing what we've been doing has only brought comfort and aid to the enemy (group 3) and increased their numbers.

Now I personally think we should get the fuck out of the Mideast altogether. That's not our place, and we bring no value to the situation. In fact, we remove value just by our mere presence. And I also see no reason why we should support governments like Saudi Arabia and the other fiefdoms - so get off oil and see how long the Saudi family stays on their thrones.

There are a lot of issues in the Mideast and they are their issues to solve, not ours.