From: John K Clark (jonkc@att.net)
Date: Fri Jun 06 2003 - 08:33:47 MDT
"Ramez Naam" <mez@apexnano.com>
> Aum Sriyinko executed attacks intended to be on the same scale as 9/11
> or even larger. They had no state support. They operated inside of
> Japan.
I don't know what you mean, before the nerve gas attack in the subway
Aum Sriyinko has secure bases, Japan did nothing to stop them. That
was no longer true after the attack and as a result the organization no
longer exists. Not supporting terrorists is insufficient, you must actively
oppose them or one way or another you'll be sorry, just ask Saddam.
> Their anger comes from their poverty (relative to us)
Yes, and they're poor relative to Japan or Korea too, and they started from
zero just 50 years ago and have no natural resources. With all that oil the
Arabs should be the richest people on Earth, but they blew it big time.
> their despair (lack of future opportunities)
Yes.
>the oppression of their governments
Yes.
> (supported or installed by the US)
Some were, but the opponents were not exactly Jefferson style libertarians,
they were in fact even more brutal and brainless than the thugs
they wound up with.
>their indoctrination into fundamentalist religion.
Yes.
>their feeling of having been humiliated by the west
Yes, and the reason they feel humiliated is that they made an ass of themselves;
their culture has not produced a good original idea in 500 years.
>A real plan on terrorism would target these root causes by spreading
>affluence, freedom, and opportunity. [.] it all comes back to
>spreading democracy and affluence. IMHO, that should be the
>US's #1 priority in foreign policy
Certainly, I want freedom and affluence for everybody, but you can't
accomplish that by lying and telling Islam what it wants to hear,
that all the idiotic decisions they've made over the last 500 years
were really good ideas. They were not.
John K Clark jonkc@att.net
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