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Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin
Let's just pretend that tomorrow we gave in to Bin Laden. We said, "Osama, we don't want to fight with you any more. We don't want any more terrorist attacks, so just tell us what you want us to do and we will do it."
He'd probably tell us to get out of Saudi Arabia and probably tell us to get out of the Middle East entirely. He'd tell us to stop supporting Israel. So let's just say that we did everything that he wanted. Do you think that he would retire from being a terrorist? I don't think so. He'd probably leave us alone for now and he would find another target. He'd probably try to overthrow the Saudi government. He'd be blowing things up all over the place in Saudi Arabia. He'd probably try to do the same thing in Egypt. Let's say that he was successful and he overthrew those governments. Do you think he would stop there? I don't think there is any chance that he would stop there. Even if he conqured the entire Middle East, I don't think he would stop there. He'd find someone else to wage jihad on. The West would probably be his next target.
Anyway, none of that is going to happen. But the point is that a terrorist like Bin Laden is going to keep being a terrorist. He will always have a new target to go after. And if you are his target, you need to do what he says or else he will terrorize you.
Bin Laden is an individual citizen with a group of followers. He is not a country. His group carries out bombings in all different countries. He has no right to try to impose his will through violence on all different countries. If I got a group of a few thousand followers, I would have no right to start bombing targets here or any other country.
I think it is a mistake to want to blame the victims in any way. I am not saying that it is not important to figure out why the terrorists are mad at us. It is important to know why they are attacking us. But just because they have what they believe is a reason to attack us, it doesn't mean that the attack is justified in any way.
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Rupert, I agree that there are people who thrive on causing death and destruction, and the "cause" is usually just an excuse (anti-abortionists who murder doctors come to mind. If it wasn't abortion it'd be something else for those terrorists), but when a person like that accumulates numerous followers I think we owe it to the safety of our own people to figure out how he's selling his poison to his followers and how we can defuse the situation so he doesn't have such a hold over his people. Because I just don't believe that many people in the world are simply crazy lunatics. It doesn't mean giving in to any demands just to appease (I find it absolutely absurd that so many neo-cons seem to equate "figure out where they're coming from" with "appeasement." Oy. They're the same people who yell that we went into Iraq to bring freedom to people who would be attacked for questioning the regime in power and then threaten violence on their fellow Americans who try to exercise that freedom by questioning their government. I don't think those Americans think much about motes and planks, no matter how Christian they claim to be).
In any event, after all my stupid jibber-jabber, along comes Nicholas Kristof with a really good editorial about Islam across the world, that says what I was trying to say far better (and more briefly!)-- here's the link. If it does't work, let me know and I'll paste the thing. Honestly, I think you'll probably agree with it...
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/12/10...10kristof.html
I was rereading "A History of England" today and reading about the English government's brutal persecution of Catholics and Presbyterians in the 17th Century makes me very grateful we've come so far in the West. I hope the Middle East gets the chance to catch up.