TK,

Yeah, I’m not surprised. I’m OK with agreeing to disagree with you on the entire Muslim and terrorism topics. We have different sources of information that we each perceive as most reliable for forming our respective opinions. I’ll try not to waste your time debating or trying to change your mind.

No I don’t support ELF or NA (whoever they are). When I attempt to explain why I believe a particular form of terrorism occurs does not mean I believe that terrorism is OK by me. I think understanding the cause of something is the first and best approach to dealing with it. Think medical or other scientific research, if you will. For a simple example, I don’t like cancer either, but I think learning that and how nicotine and tar in tobacco smoke cause cancer is a smart way to figure out how to deal with it. Same thing with terrorism.

Phreak,

It’s not an argument for or against alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. Rather, it’s an observation of how two-faced our society and government is toward these things. Truly, I do favor legalizing drugs. Not because I favor drug use, but because the drug war has been, and continues to be, a waste of scarce financial resources, and a loss of human resources in the form of prison inmates that contribute to the increased demand for prison space. I would put people who hurt people in jail. If they want to buy, sell, or use drugs, I don’t much care so long as they aren’t driving, etc.

Pot and hash are legal in the Netherlands, and the parade of horribles predicted by the “let’s legislate morality and behavior” crowd simply hasn’t come to pass. The people who want to use dope do so and pretty much stay out of the way of, and are mostly ignored by, the majority of the population that just isn’t interested. I’m favorably impressed by the pragmatic intelligence of their approach.

GP2,

I don’t recommend abandoning Israel. This is a topic that requires great precision in writing, speaking, reading, and listening. Opposing the state-sponsored terrorism of the Israeli government is not the same as being anti-semetic, anti-Jewish, etc. One of my very best friends is a Jew, for example, who absolutely is opposed to the actions of the Israeli government. She has gone to Gaza twice to work with Palestinians in large part because of her convictions on this issue. Many Israeli citizens are also opposed to their government’s actions against the Palestinians. Understanding the Israeli - Palestinian issue requires the knowledge that there are more moderates among both the Jews and Palestinians, but that the story to the world is made by the radicals and extremists on both sides.

You won’t find any statement by me recommending abandonment of Israel, nor hopefully any anti-Jewish statements. I do try to be very precise in my distinction. I simply recommend that we treat Palestinians and Israelis equally. What a concept, eh? Could, would, the U.S. dare treat world citizens equally? Too many people who are close to both Palestinians and Israeli Jews have repeated the theme that the U.S.’ one-sided support of the Israeli government, at the direct expense of the Palestinians, has done more than anything else to fan the flames of Arab hatred of the U.S.

Please tell me why it’s unwise to identify the root cause of terrorist acts against the U.S. and then trying to address that cause. As described in other posts in this thread, we seem very capable of attacking the symptoms of terror in the way we went after Al qaeda and the Taliban. Other threads have described that we might not be able to find and kill terrorists faster than new ones are produced and recruited. Would you agree that it might be desirable to create conditions that result in fewer terrorists being created and recruited in the first place, provided the cost is no skin off our nose, so to speak?

Shifting gears slightly, allowing the Afghans to grow opium poppies is totally consistent with our two-faced attitudes toward drugs. By allowing the poppy growing, we help keep the U.S. drug enforcement and prison industry well employed. We’ve allowed both government and entrepreneur empires to develop. Legalizing drugs (which would reduce wholesale demand due to lack of drug interdiction) would leave an economic void that would cause some influential people to displeased, probably causing them to take political action in this country. Our national behavior in this regard does conform to my contention, however, that nations don’t have friends; nations have interests. They act on behalf of those interests, going to war with Iraq against Iran one day, with Iran against Iraq the next if it suits us. Or flip-flopping on Afghan poppy growing. Face it, it’s not like we actually care about anybody.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.