Reply #56: But it WOULD help end any popular support for them

[IrateCitizen]

Do you think that our support for authoritarian regimes, our support of Israel's campaigns of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians (settlers and their supporters are crystal-clear on this issue), etc. helps us to engender support among the majority of Arabs and Muslims in the ME? Or would it tend to alienate them, possibly pushing them toward the terrorists?

Want to know how Islamic fundamentalism will be defeated? It will be defeated by removing its base of support among the general population. How do you do that? By ceasing to support policies that OPPRESS them, and instead looking to help them empower themselves on their terms.

They may not march to whatever tune we play, but they sure as hell won't support the extremists either. What these people really want is freedom and democracy ON THEIR TERMS. The extremists aren't offering them that -- but it's not like WE are offering them that either. In fact, we're quite often pulling it out of their reach, which only serves to turn them against us.