Do the Russians feel differently about Chechnya because of Beslan? Only in the sense that they want to murder all Chechens, slightly more than they did before. Killing their children is not only uncivilized, is doesn't work. It unites the target and strengthens their resolve, adds just men to their cause, etc. You wanted "feedback on how the Palestinian populace might be coerced". The answer is justice. Injustice is stupid and adds nothing.
I don't know why I have to repeat this nearly daily to otherwise sane and rational, informed conservatives. It is something about terrorists as enemies that seduces to mindlessness. You can see in your own heart what immoral tactics do to the resolve of an enemy - do they make you weaker and more likely to bow and scrap to them by attacking innocents, or more likely to want to hunt down the perpetrators and kill them? You know it is the second. So why would you think, even looking for "feedback", that the reverse would help?
"Because then they'd feel how we feel". And that would be progress? Are you feeling defeated or something? About ready to give up? If not, how would making them feel that way help anything? We don't want to make them feel righteously indignant and unified in their opposition to our unjust oppression. We want their guilty parties to feel nothing at all - or the fires of hell if that is your thing - and the rest of them to see swift and discriminating justice, that promises them safety if they behave and rapid death if they do not.
It is the fact that the terrorists do not offer safety to those who behave with justice that constitutes their criminality. This is all obvious, everyone should know it. Anybody who does, and still for some reason thinks he is giving something up and restraining himself from using a supposedly profitable tactic when he distinguishes between the guilty and the innocent, is being a muddle head.
It is perhaps understandable and you are by no means alone. But our enemy's propaganda is based on moral equivalence garbage that preys on this tendency, and we should be hyper aware of it and not give an inch.
The conundrum of what motivates terrorists to do what they do has always baffled me, and still does. You say the answer is "justice." Is not justice in the eyes of the beholder? I see the blood and gore after innocent Israelis are killed on a bus and I wonder how any ARAB could think this is in any way justified. Is that justice to them? If so, how do we ever, EVER change their minds? OR, and I suspect this is the truth, are we spoonfed the "facts" as the media interprets the facts?
We've learned trusting the media is naive. I just can't believe that "ordinary" Palestinian mothers are that much different than "ordinary" American mothers. I suspect both only want what's best for their children . . . good educations, long lives, happiness, good health, etc.
The media report Iraq is Hell on Earth. I know that's not true . . . but I don't know how bad or how good it is. The same holds true for Palestinians. I'm not convinced we're getting an accurate portrayal of events in the Middle East either.
If we are . . . then I'm still baffled by any country's citizenry that would as a group back the murderous efforts of terrorists. A friend describes their attitudes as the "teeny-weeny" complex . . . they're jealous of us and the Israelis. I can see that to a point, but has life and history beat them down so much that they can't see that hard work begets a higher standard of living? And more respect? And more freedom? And, eventually, all the things other hard-working, freedom-loving citizens enjoy?
THAT is the conundrum. We say "Roadmap to Peace." They hear "the Israelis are taking our land." We say "white" and they hear "black."
How are we EVER going to bridge the cultural differences? The distrust?