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To: CHARLITE

Ho boy, where to start?

1) When conflicts initiate between broad communities, one of the biggest ifficulties is getting the community to wake up and realize the threat and move to address it. One way of doing this is to demonize and dehumanize the opposing community.

The main drawback to this approach is that, while it works well usually, it also unites the opposition who use your hyperbole to unite their own ranks.

Right now, most well informed moderate muslims, whom the MSM ignore but are out there, are on our side for the most part. But if you paint with a broad brush a picture of Islam as a cult and inherently evil, then you will lose these people.

What sense does that make, to unite an opposing community against you? Despite the fact that it might make you feel good to call them names, it is a poor tactic and increases the likelihood of a long drawn-out unending conflict that we cant win because the Democratic West has never been tolerant of long conflicts. It also costs us far more to respond tothese attacks than it costs the ISlamofascists to launch them, so it is a horrid ratio of resources.

The cheapest and most cost efficient means of defeating the Islamofascists is to recognize that not all of them (in fact the vast majority) do not want to engage in a Jihad against the West.

2) When you attack all of Islam as an evil cult, you also engage in *hate* speech that the left will use to stifle your expression, depict you as racist Nazis or Christian fundamentalist zealots and you will alienate many moderate Americans also.

Getting the public to stick to fighting this very necesary war is hard enough without also throwing away the moral high ground by lowering our cause to religious crusading. If we do this, the public will abandon the war within 5 years if it takes even that long.

3) By alienating the Islamofascists from the moderate Islamic majority, you decrease their resources which flow from these people in the form of institutional charity. But if you attack all Islam as an evil cult, you will open the flood gates of funds and resources to groups like al Qaeda.

4) This kind of rhetoric will also undermine support for the democratic Iraqi government who needs to winthe hearts and minds of their people. In fact, were I some Arabic prince, dictator or Islamofascist, I would be trying to instigate the exact kind of hatred that is being expressed on this thread. That is why they bomb civilians, comit acts of terrorism and behead civilians - it is to provoke us into rage and indiscriminate revenge which will aid them in uniting the 'Umma' against the 'infidel'.

Why help them to achieve their goal?

How much more counter-productive can one be than to unite ones opposition, divide ones support and then increase the resources available to one enemy as well?

It borders on basic incompetence and incredulous foolishness.

Please, if you want to win the war on Terror, then *focus* your mind, expression and effort on defeating the Islamofascists and NO ONE ELSE.


84 posted on 11/27/2004 10:06:44 AM PST by JFK_Lib
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To: JFK_Lib
Uh oh...you're probably gonna get a lot of responses indicating that your premises are naive...though it is obvious your heart is in the right place and you are trying to find reasonable center ground.

Why not explore Islam for yourself so you know what you're dealing with before taking the traditonal centrist's position and that might...just might...

...be completely inappropriate in this situation.

Open your ears at this forum and you will hear from some people that know a great deal about this subject.

You will find they are willing to listen...once you have done your homework.

87 posted on 11/27/2004 10:16:56 AM PST by weenie (Islam is as "dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog." -- Churchill)
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