Quote Originally Posted by Whacker
I am not a prejudiced person, but I do sometimes find it hard to not view Islam as a 'violent' religion based on what I see and read. In general though, I can say for certain that it does reinforce my views on religion in general, and why I don't really respect it.
I try not to be a prejiduce person, but i am far from perfect. Since I dont have a working knowledge of the middleast based on knowing someone or having traveled there I am forced to base my conclusions on the resources I have which are somewhat limiting.

that said i do think its fair to come to the conclusion that religion is a basis for a lot of thier decisions (which you astutely pointed out). I suspect that the moderation we have found in the west (religous moderation) might come eventually, in the scope of time, it wasnt long ago that the roles were reversed, that under the guise of religion western cultures committed many, many violent acts.


Meh... I still say it would never work because of the sheer backlash from the American public. I guarantee you we'd never go for it, hell I'd even go out and riot if they tried that.
I agree there is no will for it, unless perhaps another attack on U.S. soil occurs. I dont think its going to happen but as you point out further


Yes, and this is exactly what scares me the most. He's already demonstrated a number of times that he's clearly in "I don't give a damn" mode.
How far will he go to save face? Particularly now that Iran has 3000 centerfuges up and running (I know that the concensus on this is that its folly, non the less thats what they are claiming). Drafts are very unpopular but is an act of the executive branch. This go back to the 13th amendment, which the supreme court said dosent prohibit manditory military service.

So technically, unless there is a constitutional amendment, the draft option is still on the table.



I think we are of similiar minds in terms of being "isolationist" to a point, but I do care about how we come off to the rest of the world. It's part of being a good neighbor/citizen to fellow mankind and think we could be doing much better to try and establish better relations with the rest of the world.
This is where you and I part ways to a degree. I find more and more the U.S. being in no win situations when it comes to being good neibhors (any muslim countries appear on al jazeera and thank us for the relief in Pakistan when they had earth quakes?).

We could do better at establishing relations but historically I think we have done our fair share of this, for our benefit and others as well, i think it is in our national intrest to step back from the internationl systems that were put in place to deal with a different world order that no longer exsists.


Afghanistan was a kneejerk reaction to 9/11.
We disagree on this point as well (my disagreement is mild). A knee jerk reaction to a country who was sponsoring the organization responsible for the attack?

I think we went easy on them to be blunt, and the disaster that has befallen us as a result of afghanistan is now we need to prop up masharif in pakistan to support an unfinished assult to begin with.

The lack of a knee jerk is why we still have a mess over there, and another one coming when musharif extends his military dictatorship this summer. We didnt react strongly enough in Afghanistan.



This is a major issue for me in terms of how I vote.
I suspect the dems will have at it for the next 2 years, no one is safe in the white house. Once the us attorney thing clears up, something else will pop up. Take solace in the fact that for the next 20-25 years being apart of the Bush administration will be a political liability.


I'm all for accepting the reality, but I do think "exploiting", for lack of a better term, the situation is morally wrong. Don't get me wrong, I do understand the real need for the oil, but don't think exploitation is the right way.
Yes its morally wrong, I wont contest that. My position is of course somewhat of an "armchair" general, so its perhaps not fair for me to suggest we take what we can and get out now. However the entire sub premises of the war, being the morality of exporting freedom, were a farce and I would much rather have prefferred to have had a war for the resources.

To me (a somewhat isolationist) if your going to go abroad the payoff has to be some form of gain (via treasure, or political gain) and as of today we have neither.


If anything this means that we should look toward significantly bolstering research and efforts towards alternative fuel sources. Nuclear energy seems to be one of the better ways at this point, and there are reactor designs that can be built which, in theory, can never have a meltdown and are significantly safer by design.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble-bed_reactor

Hopefully ITER will end up providing a real, safe, clean form of energy down the road, if the politics and bullshit can ever be overcome.
I agree


As cold hearted as this sounds, I think we should leave them to it and let them figure it out. If all they can do is kill each other over some 'matter of faith' that by nature can 'never be wrong', then so be it, I think the world will be a better place without those kinds of people.
Strongly agree !

In terms of Israel, I'm at a bit of a loss here. Truthfully I think we can draw a parallel in our relationship with that of China and N. Korea. Israel, if abandoned to it's own will, I think would more than happily go to war with all it's arab neighbors, and probably even use nuclear weapons. Can't say I'd blame them completely, after all it's to be somewhat expected with that kind of mindset when you're surrounded on all sides by people who want to kill you. In fact I'd even put my money on Israel winning too, not because of nukes, but because of sheer will to survive and military prowess.
Israel will fight to the death if it has too, what other choice does it have? What we should be doing is pressing them to to resolve the palestinan issue now. The political climate in Israel isnt pleasant and israeli governments fall rather often.

The time is right to make a deal now, and I suspect part of what Rice sold to the saudi's was " do your part" in the process with israel. Like it or not Israel is there to stay or be destroyed and destroy everyone with them.