<Americans shoot American doctors.

It's useful for the Left to give the impression that abortion doctors are dropping like flies at the hands of right-wing murderers, with the enthusiastic support of everyone except the hand-wringing Democrats.

Since 1977, a grand total of seven people have been killed in relation to abortion clinic violence. Only three of these were doctors. To be fair, this is just the tip of the iceberg of all abortion-related violence, but it's hardly the massacre of doctors that is implied.

Aside from the usual minority of right-wing crackpots, the murderers of abortion doctors are universally condemned by mainstream conservatives and Republicans, and they are sought, caught, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, often making the FBI's Ten Most Wanted lists. James Kopp was hit with additional murder charges only a few days ago.

One - GET THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR TERRORISM. NO ONE ELSE. Become known as a country which will not tolerate actions against it, and will get the people responsible.

I'd love to hear a practical technique for doing this. I really, really would. If we could beam the bad guys out of the bunkers a la Star Trek, capturing terrorists would be a lot easier. If terrorists wore T-shirts saying "I'm a terrorist, not a goat herder," it would be a lot easier. If they put their hands up when soldiers demanded surrender instead of laying down withering rains of automatic gunfire, it would be a lot easier. If unarmed Bobbies could come up, put handcuffs on the bad guys, and haul them off without winding up buried in the desert with their heads flayed, it would be a lot easier. If the terrorists didn't hide in neighborhoods, mosques, schools filled with kids, hospitals and the like instead of sitting in tents in the middle of the desert clearly marked "TERRORISTS HERE." it would be a lot easier. If terrorists came into the United States clearly labeled as such instead of looking exactly like one of hundreds of thousands of legitimate Arabic immigrants, it would be a lot easier.

For God's sake, I have heard this demand from liberals until I'm sick of it. Come up with a real way to ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISH THIS. Or shut up about it.

Incidentally, the Israelis have just completed a "focussed and effective" attack on known Palestinian terrorists, attempting arrests and killing some, and have gotten no end of crap from people like you about it.

Two - Participate in constructive activities in the countrysides. Truly do it, not the photo-ops where the US would bomb a bunch of civilians, then take a day to stand the shelves in a library back up.

We are doing exactly this in Afghanistan. We have been doing this all over the world for decades. Billions of dollars flow out of this country to such efforts. Billions. What kind of good will has this bought us? But those incapable of seeing America as anything other than an evil empire don't know or don't care.

Three - Open a dialogue with our enemies so as to limit the disputes to legitimate areas, and not imagined ones. It doesn't hurt to listen, and very often hostility evaporates when there has been a discussion focussed upon understanding - not agreeing, not tolerating, but understanding. As it is, the US seems to be afraid to talk with those with whom we disagree.



For instance, if an Islamic militant tried to post on this board, I believe he (wouldn't be a "she", I don't think") would be shouted down. No one would try to learn better what the reasoning is. And for every greivance we as Americans could come up with, and there are a lot, the militant could match it.



We already know exactly what Al Quaeda wants: America either Muslim or dead. They have said it often enough, and even put it down in writing. I would be dazzled to find what you consider to be common ground here. It is extremely revealing that Leftists promote the Hundred Flowers of Thought when they are talking about certain categories of anti-American psychotics. Oddly, they are nowhere near as tolerant of crackpots in other areas of the spectrum. For example, if some dickhead showed up on the board demanding that all blacks be either killed or shipped back to Africa, I seriously doubt any liberals would be standing up and defending his right to an opinion or encouraging us to try and look at it from his point of view.

As Tevye once said, sometimes there is no "other hand."

The basics of your suggestions are valid. What you don't see is that, as best as is possible in the real world, America is TRYING to do what you suggest: destroy the terrorists overseas while at the same time protecting and supporting the civilians. The fact that we are imperfect in this is evident in accidents and collateral damage, but like I said before, if you have a better method, I'd love to hear it.

Compared to ROW the US invests very little in foreign aid, and very little of that goes to where it's needed.

Utter bullshit. This is based on a statistical lie that, as always, the Left hopes no one will notice. This is based not on actual money amounts, but on the percent of GNP that is used. Naturally, very small countries like Denmark, which gives less than a fifth of what the U.S. does in pure humanitarian aid (note the tiny little footnote at the bottom of the graphic explaining what kinds of aid are NOT included), come out smelling pretty good by this standard. A little more information is more useful.

In actual fact, the U.S. gives more than any other nation in the world, although we have come in second to Japan a few times.