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:	post by ShadowSD at 2006-07-07 17:24:19

americaninfidel said:

What exactly would be productive? I do not see how going by the title Americaninfidel is counter productive.

I was making a reference to a point I've made here in the past about how we can only win by not allowing ourselves to sink to their level, whether it comes to condoning torture, dehumanizing enemies, or supporting the political policies of religious fundamendalists:

"If the terrorists successfully frame this war as Christian vs. Muslim, WE LOSE, and if we frame this war as civilization vs. anarchy, WE WIN. That's it."

"I just hold our government to a higher standard than I do terrorist head cutters. If I didn't, then that would mean I don't expect any more from our government than I do from terrorists. And if I don't expect more from our government than I do from terrorists, then there's no reason to be more fearful of one than the other."

"We may not like it, but America as a superpower sets the standard for the rest of the world in ways we don't even realize, and this is doubly true after the fall of the USSR and our emergence as the sole superpower. We elect a foreign policy hardliner (Bush), and yet we are surprised when other countries do the same (Iranians electing Ahmedinejad / Palestinians electing HAMAS).

Ultimately, America sets the standard nowadays, and everytime we punch the mirror for mimicking us, we can't change the reflection; we only end up with shards of glass in our hands."

Source: http://www.returntothepit.com/view.php?formid=27374

Having someone who refuses to listen to this kind of common sense reasoning call themselves americaninfidel is incredibly ironic, if nothing else.

americaninfidel said:

I'm deploying to Iraq in Sept, maybe you don't think our military is going in the correct path. But I'd say joining the cause is a little more productive than trading of witticism's?

How? How could joining a cause that's not going the correct path POSSIBLY be productive? You say regardless of the fact that I don't think our military is going in the correct path, joining that cause would still be productive; I would love to hear you explain this logic to me.

Bad foreign policy decisions in the Middle East were the terrorists' motivation for 9/11. So our first response was to create more bad foreign policy decisions in the Middle East. Now, America has in a few years fallen to its lowest standing around the world in several decades, which makes terrorist recruitment that much easier. The number of poor, uneducated, young Muslim men in the world with no hope of advancement exceeds the entire population of the United States, and the worse American policies look to them, the more vulnerable all of them become to jihadist recruitment.

Despite our pride as the world's only superpower, if our policies turn them all against us, we can't kill them all. No amount of miltary force, no nuclear weapons will be of any use, because the terrorists will be scattered everywhere and not in a central location. The US, meanwhile, IS a central location which has countless unprotected targets to this day. Now consider that twenty of them took out three thousand of us. Is the math getting through to you yet?

Bottom line: there is one ratio that matters in the war on terror: are we killing them faster than they can recruit?

Maybe all the "tough" reactionary conservatives who go on about defense and patriotism while supporting self-destructive foreign policy and calling Wolf Blitzer and Jim Lehrer communists like they're Joseph Fucking McCarthy should stop being so smug and start thinking about the security of the country realistically, and not as a catchphrase.

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