> > Kai Becker wrote: > > There is, BTW a dispute about the word "fight" of the
> quoted Koran verse.
> >
> Spike Jones wrote: > Cool, this is exactly what I have in mind. Meme warfare
> in which
> > we have some means of implanting the notion in OBL and all his
> > followers that the sacred text exhorts them to fight the west by verbal,
> > mental, non-violent struggle. spike
>
> Samantha: Better yet. How can we implant the meme that the coolest thing
> imaginable is finding common understandings that allow us all to
> live in peace and prosper without limitation without needing to
> wage any form of "warfare" whatsoever? The imagery of "warfare"
> and "fight" is already at odds with this goal. Interesting. -s.
Part of the problem is we are fighting memes that were recorded
on dead trees many centuries ago. These cannot change.
One example you bring up, Samantha is the presence of American
troops in Saudi Arabia causing Muslim hatred towards us, since
Mohammed said on his deathbed to never allow the infidel there.
Some have suggested that we could make OBL happy by pulling
US troops out of Saudi Arabia.
The immediate problem I see with this approach is that the
US troops are in Saudi Arabia with the blessing of the Saudi
government. So the immediate question is why did not OBL
take over Saudi planes and crash them into Saudi buildings?
Why does not the Taliban seek to overthrow the Saudi
government, then install themselves as the government there,
so that they could then legitimately negotiate with the US
on such matters?
If the Taliban is interested in Israel's treatment of the Palestinians,
then why did not the Taliban take over Israeli planes and crash
them into Israeli buildings, or attempt to overthrow the Israeli
government, in order to install itself as government there, so
that they could then negotiate.
If the Taliban's struggle is against christianity, well, I really
don't know what to tell them. I struggle against christianity
too, in a sense.
For the Taliban to hold the US responsible for the actions of
the Saudi government, the Israeli government, and Christian
missionaries, and to express their anger by slaying innocent
US citizens is the most reprehensible act I can imagine. I do
not see how we could legitimately negotiate with such people. spike
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