Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to We already understand them.

With all due respect, I don't think we've got the first foggiest idea
McFly — (archived)

But Hussein Massawi, former leader of Hezbollah, summed it up very pithily: "We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you."

That's one quote, from one extremist.

I've seen things said on this very board that would--were I Muslim--sound every bit as alarming.

The US, imho, needs to stop alienating potential friends and try starting a dialogue with current enemies. Perhaps we'll be unable to do so with the most radical of them, but I doubt that everyone with a dislike for America is a wild-eyed lunatic.

I think Odin is 100% right...we need get off our high-horse, dump the absurd assumption that the American way-of-life is the only one worth living, and demand that our government and industries reduce the size of the footprints they leave when walking on someone else's turf. Too much of America looks at the rest-of-the-world the same way a starving man might look at a turkey dinner. Instead of seeing cultures and diverse human experience, all we see is opportunity: labor, markets, capital, undeveloped property.

This planet is not ours to do with as we see fit. We're tenants of the earth, not landlords. Are we so bound up with issues of ownership and management and competition that we've forgotten about things like sharing and cooperation? Could we, under any circumstances, simply leave people alone?

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