I got this in an e-mail and I wanted to share it with everyone here. It is a very long, but compelling read.

Gandaar

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W O R L D T H R E A T - HAIM HARARI, a theoretical physicist, is the Chair, Davidson Institute

Speech by Haim Harari on War on Terror

HAIM HARARI, a theoretical physicist, is the Chair, Davidson Institute of Science Education, and Former President, from 1988 to 2001, of the Weizmann Institute of Science. During his years as President of the Institute, the Institute entered numerous new scientific fields and projects, built 47 new buildings, raised one Billion Dollars in philanthropic money, hired more than half of its current tenured Professors and became one of the highest royalty-earning academic organizations in the world.

Throughout all his adult life, Harari has made major contributions to three different fields: Particle Physics Research on the international scene, Science Education in the Israeli school system and Science Administration and Policy Making.


A View from the Eye of the Storm

Talk delivered by Haim Harari at a meeting of the International Advisory Board of a large multi-national corporation, April, 2004.


As you know, I usually provide the scientific and technological "entertainment"

in our meetings, but, on this occasion, our Chairman suggested that I present

my own personal view on events in the part of the world from which I come. I

have never been and I will never be a Government official and I have no

privileged information. My perspective is entirely based on what I see, on

what I read and on the fact that my family has lived in this region for almost

200 years. You may regard my views as those of the proverbial taxi driver,

which you are supposed to question, when you visit a country.



I could have shared with you some fascinating facts and some personal

thoughts about the Israeli-Arab conflict. However, I will touch upon it only in

passing. I prefer to devote most of my remarks to the broader picture of the

region and its place in world events. I refer to the entire area between

Pakistan and Morocco, which is predominantly Arab, predominantly Moslem,

but includes many non-Arab and also significant non-Moslem minorities.

Why do I put aside Israel and its own immediate neighborhood? Because Israel

and any problems related to it, in spite of what you might read or hear in the

world media, is not the central issue, and has never been the central issue in

the upheaval in the region. Yes, there is a 100 year-old Israeli-Arab conflict,

but it is not where the main show is. The millions who died in the Iran-Iraq

war had nothing to do with Israel. The mass murder happening right now in

Sudan, where the Arab Moslem regime is massacring its black Christian

citizens, has nothing to do with Israel. The frequent reports from Algeria

about the murders of hundreds of civilian in one village or another by other

Algerians have nothing to do with Israel. Saddam Hussein did not invade

Kuwait, endangered Saudi Arabia and butchered his own people because of

Israel. Egypt did not use poison gas against Yemen in the 60's because of

Israel. Assad the Father did not kill tens of thousands of his own citizens in

one week in El Hamma in Syria because of Israel. The Taliban control of

Afghanistan and the civil war there had nothing to do with Israel. The Libyan

blowing up of the Pan-Am flight had nothing to do with Israel, and I could go

on and on and on.


The root of the trouble is that this entire Moslem region is totally

dysfunctional, by any standard of the word, and would have been so even if

Israel would have joined the Arab league and an independent Palestine would

have existed for 100 years. The 22 member countries of the Arab league, from

Mauritania to the Gulf States, have a total population of 300 millions, larger

than the US and almost as large as the EU before its expansion. They have a

land area larger than either the US or all of Europe. These 22 countries, with

all their oil and natural resources, have a combined GDP smaller than that of

Netherlands plus Belgium and equal to half of the GDP of California alone.

Within this meager GDP, the gaps between rich and poor are beyond belief

and too many of the rich made their money not by succeeding in business,

but by being corrupt rulers. The social status of women is far below what it

was in the Western World 150 years ago. Human rights are below any

reasonable standard, in spite of the grotesque fact that Libya was elected

Chair of the UN Human Rights commission. According to a report prepared by

a committee of Arab intellectuals and published under the auspices of the

U.N., the number of books translated by the entire Arab world is much smaller

than what little Greece alone translates. The total number of scientific

publications of 300 million Arabs is less than that of 6 million Israelis. Birth

rates in the region are very high, increasing the poverty, the social gaps and

the cultural decline. And all of this is happening in a region, which only 30

years ago, was believed to be the next wealthy part of the world, and in a

Moslem area, which developed, at some point in history, one of the most

advanced cultures in the world.


It is fair to say that this creates an unprecedented breeding ground for cruel

dictators, terror networks, fanaticism, incitement, suicide murders and general

decline. It is also a fact that almost everybody in the region blames this

situation on the United States, on Israel, on Western Civilization, on Judaism

and Christianity, on anyone and anything, except themselves.


Do I say all of this with the satisfaction of someone discussing the failings of

his enemies? On the contrary, I firmly believe that the world would have been

a much better place and my own neighborhood would have been much more

pleasant and peaceful, if things were different.


I should also say a word about the millions of decent, honest, good people

who are either devout Moslems or are not very religious but grew up in

Moslem families. They are double victims of an outside world, which now

develops Islamophobia and of their own environment, which breaks their heart

by being totally dysfunctional. The problem is that the vast silent majority of

these Moslems are not part of the terror and of the incitement but they also

do not stand up against it. They become accomplices, by omission, and this

applies to political leaders, intellectuals, business people and many others.

Many of them can certainly tell right from wrong, but are afraid to express

their views.



The events of the last few years have amplified four issues, which have

always existed, but have never been as rampant as in the present upheaval in

the region. These are the four main pillars of the current World Conflict, or

perhaps we should already refer to it as "the undeclared World War III". I

have no better name for the present situation. A few more years may pass

before everybody acknowledges that it is a World War, but we are already

well into it.


The first element is the suicide murder. Suicide murders are not a new

invention but they have been made popular, if I may use this expression, only

lately. Even after September 11, it seems that most of the Western World

does not yet understand this weapon. It is a very potent psychological

weapon. Its real direct impact is relatively minor. The total number of

casualties from hundreds of suicide murders within Israel in the last three

years is much smaller than those due to car accidents.


September 11 was quantitatively much less lethal than many earthquakes.

More people die from AIDS in one day in Africa than all the Russians who died

in the hands of Chechnya-based Moslem suicide murderers since that conflict

started. Saddam killed every month more people than all those who died from

suicide murders since the Coalition occupation of Iraq. So what is all the fuss

about suicide killings? It creates headlines. It is spectacular. It is frightening.

It is a very cruel death with bodies dismembered and horrible severe lifelong

injuries to many of the wounded.


It is always shown on television in great detail. One such murder, with the

help of hysterical media coverage, can destroy the tourism industry of a

country for quite a while, as it did in Bali and in Turkey.


But the real fear comes from the undisputed fact that no defense and no

preventive measures can succeed against a determined suicide murderer.

This has not yet penetrated the thinking of the Western World. The U.S. and

Europe are constantly improving their defense against the last murder, not

the next one. We may arrange for the best airport security in the world. But if

you want to murder by suicide, you do not have to board a plane in order to

explode yourself and kill many people. Who could stop a suicide murder in the

midst of the crowded line waiting to be checked by the airport metal

detector? How about the lines to the check-in counters in a busy travel

period? Put a metal detector in front of every train station in Spain and the

terrorists will get the buses. Protect the buses and they will explode in movie

theaters, concert halls, supermarkets, shopping malls, schools and hospitals.

Put guards in front of every concert hall and there will always be a line of

people to be checked by the guards and this line will be the target, not to

speak of killing the guards themselves. You can somewhat reduce your

vulnerability by preventive and defensive measures and by strict border

controls but not eliminate it and definitely not win the war in a defensive way.

And it is a war!


What is behind the suicide murders? Money, power and cold-blooded

murderous incitement, nothing else. It has nothing to do with true fanatic

religious beliefs. No Moslem preacher has ever blown himself up. No son of an

Arab politician or religious leader has ever blown himself. No relative of anyone

influential has done it. Wouldn't you expect some of thereligious leaders to do

it themselves, or to talk their sons into doing it, if this is truly a supreme act

of religious fervor? Aren't they interested in the benefits of going to Heaven?

Instead, they send outcast women, naïve children, retarded people and young

incited hotheads. They promise them the delights, mostly sexual, of the next

world, and pay their families handsomely after the supreme act is performed

and enough innocent people are dead.



Suicide murders also have nothing to do with poverty and despair. The

poorest region in the world, by far, is Africa. It never happens there. There

are numerous desperate people in the world, in different cultures, countries

and continents. Desperation does not provide anyone with explosives,

reconnaissance and transportation. There was certainly more despair in

Saddam's Iraq then in Paul Bremmer's Iraq, and no one exploded himself. A

suicide murder is simply a horrible, vicious weapon of cruel, inhuman, cynical,

well-funded terrorists, with no regard to human life, including the life of their

fellow countrymen, but with very high regard to their own affluent well-being

and their hunger for power.



The only way to fight this new "popular" weapon is identical to the only way

in which you fight organized crime or pirates on the high seas: the offensive

way. Like in the case of organized crime, it is crucial that the forces on the

offensive be united and it is crucial to reach the top of the crime pyramid.

You cannot eliminate organized crime by arresting the little drug dealer in the

street corner. You must go after the head of the "Family".



If part of the public supports it, others tolerate it, many are afraid of it and

some try to explain it away by poverty or by a miserable childhood, organized

crime will thrive and so will terrorism. The United States understands this

now, after September 11. Russia is beginning to understand it. Turkey

understands it well. I am very much afraid that most of Europe still does not

understand it. Unfortunately, it seems that Europe will understand it only

after suicide murders will arrive in Europe in a big way. In my humble opinion,

this will definitely happen. The Spanish trains and the Istanbul bombings are

only the beginning. The unity of the Civilized World in fighting this horror is

absolutely indispensable. Until Europe wakes up, this unity will not be

achieved.


The second ingredient is words, more precisely lies. Words can be lethal.

They kill people. It is often said that politicians, diplomats and perhaps also

lawyers and business people must sometimes lie, as part of their professional

life. But the norms of politics and diplomacy are childish, in comparison with

the level of incitement and total absolute deliberate fabrications, which have

reached new heights in the region we are talking about. An incredible number

of people in the Arab world believe that September 11 never happened, or

was an American provocation or, even better, a Jewish plot.


You all remember the Iraqi Minister of Information, Mr. Mouhamad Said al-

Sahaf and his press conferences when the US forces were already inside

Baghdad. Disinformation at time of war is an accepted tactic. But to stand,

day after day, and to make such preposterous statements, known to

everybody to be lies, without even being ridiculed in your own milieu, can only

happen in this region. Mr. Sahaf eventually became a popular icon as a court

jester, but this did not stop some allegedly respectable newspapers from

giving him equal time. It also does not prevent the Western press from giving

credence, every day, even now, to similar liars. After all, if you want to be

an anti-Semite, there are subtle ways of doing it. You do not have to claim

that the holocaust never happened and that the Jewish temple in Jerusalem

never existed. But millions of Moslems are told by their leaders that this is the

case. When these same leaders make other statements, the Western media

report them as if they could be true.


It is a daily occurrence that the same people, who finance, arm and dispatch

suicide murderers, condemn the act in English in front of western TV cameras,

talking to a world audience, which even partly believes them. It is a daily

routine to hear the same leader making opposite statements in Arabic to his

people and in English to the rest of the world. Incitement by Arab TV,

accompanied by horror pictures of mutilated bodies, has become a powerful

weapon of those who lie, distort and want to destroy everything. Little

children are raised on deep hatred and on admiration of so-called martyrs, and

the Western World does not notice it because its own TV sets are mostly

tuned to soap operas and game shows. I recommend to you, even though

most of you do not understand Arabic, to watch Al Jazeera, from time to

time. You will not believe your own eyes.


But words also work in other ways, more subtle. A demonstration in Berlin,

carrying banners supporting Saddam's regime and featuring three-year old

babies dressed as suicide murderers, is defined by the press and by political

leaders as a "peace demonstration". You may support or oppose the Iraq war,

but to refer to fans of Saddam, Arafat or Bin Laden as peace activists is a bit

too much. A woman walks into an Israeli restaurant in mid-day, eats,

observes families with old people and children eating their lunch in the

adjacent tables and pays the bill. She then blows herself up, killing 20 people,

including many children, with heads and arms rolling around in the restaurant.

She is called "martyr" by several Arab leaders and "activist" by the European

press. Dignitaries condemn the act but visit her bereaved family and the

money flows.



There is a new game in town: The actual murderer is called "the military

wing", the one who pays him, equips him and sends him is now called "the

political wing" and the head of the operation is called the "spiritual leader".

There are numerous other examples of such Orwellian nomenclature, used

every day not only by terror chiefs but also by Western media. These words

are much more dangerous than many people realize. They provide an

emotional infrastructure for atrocities. It was Joseph Goebels who said that if

you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. He is now being

outperformed by his successors.


The third aspect is money. Huge amounts of money, which could have solved

many social problems in this dysfunctional part of the world, are channeled

into three concentric spheres supporting death and murder. In the inner circle

are the terrorists themselves. The money funds their travel, explosives,

hideouts and permanent search for soft vulnerable targets. They are

surrounded by a second wider circle of direct supporters, planners,

commanders, preachers, all of whom make a living, usually a very comfortable

living, by serving as terror infrastructure.


Finally, we find the third circle of so-called religious, educational and welfare

organizations, which actually do some good, feed the hungry and provide

some schooling, but brainwash a new generation with hatred, lies and

ignorance. This circle operates mostly through mosques, madrasas and other

religious establishments but also through inciting electronic and printed media.

It is this circle that makes sure that women remain inferior, that democracy is

unthinkable and that exposure to the outside world is minimal. It is also that

circle that leads the way in blaming everybody outside the Moslem world, for

the miseries of the region.



Figuratively speaking, this outer circle is the guardian, which makes sure that

the people look and listen inwards to the inner circle of terror and incitement,

rather than to the world outside. Some parts of this same outer circle actually

operate as a result of fear from, or blackmail by, the inner circles. The

horrifying added factor is the high birth rate.


Half of the population of the Arab world is under the age of 20, the most

receptive age to incitement, guaranteeing two more generations of blind

hatred.



Of the three circles described above, the inner circles are primarily financed

by terrorist states like Iran and Syria, until recently also by Iraq and Libya and

earlier also by some of the Communist regimes. These states, as well as the

Palestinian Authority, are the safe havens of the wholesale murder vendors.

The outer circle is largely financed by Saudi Arabia, but also by donations

from certain Moslem communities in the United States and Europe and, to a

smaller extent, by donations of European Governments to various NGO's and

by certain United Nations organizations, whose goals may be noble, but they

are infested and exploited by agents of the outer circle. The Saudi regime, of

course, will be the next victim of major terror, when the inner circle will

explode into the outer circle. The Saudis are beginning to understand it, but

they fight the inner circles, while still financing the infrastructure at the outer

circle.?



Some of the leaders of these various circles live very comfortably on their

loot. You meet their children in the best private schools in Europe, not in the

training camps of suicide murderers. The Jihad "soldiers" join packaged death

tours to Iraq and other hotspots, while some of their leaders ski in

Switzerland. Mrs. Arafat, who lives in Paris with her daughter, receives tens

of thousands Dollars per month from the allegedly bankrupt Palestinian

Authority while a typical local ringleader of the Al-Aksa brigade, reporting to

Arafat, receives only a cash payment of a couple of hundred dollars, for

performing murders at the retail level?




The fourth element of the current world conflict is the total breaking of all

laws. The civilized world believes in democracy, the rule of law, including

international law, human rights, free speech and free press, among other

liberties. There are naïve old-fashioned habits such as respecting religious

sites and symbols, not using ambulances and hospitals for acts of war,

avoiding the mutilation of dead bodies and not using children as human shields

or human bombs. Never in history, not even in the Nazi period, was there

such total disregard of all of the above as we observe now. Every student of

political science debates how you prevent an anti-democratic force from

winning a democratic election and abolishing democracy. Other aspects of a

civilized society must also have limitations. Can a policeman open fire on

someone trying to kill him?



Can a government listen to phone conversations of terrorists and drug

dealers? Does free speech protects you when you shout "fire" in a crowded

theater? Should there be death penalty, for deliberate multiple murders?

These are the old-fashioned dilemmas. But now we have an entire new set.




Do you raid a mosque, which serves as a terrorist ammunition storage? Do you

return fire, if you are attacked from a hospital? Do you storm a church taken

over by terrorists who took the priests hostages? Do you search every

ambulance after a few suicide murderers use ambulances to reach their

targets? Do you strip every woman because one pretended to be pregnant

and carried a suicide bomb on her belly? Do you shoot back at someone trying

to kill you, standing deliberately behind a group of children? Do you raid

terrorist headquarters, hidden in a mental hospital? Do you shoot an arch-

murderer who deliberately moves from one location to another, always

surrounded by children? All of these happen daily in Iraq and in the Palestinian

areas. What do you do? Well, you do not want to face the dilemma. But it

cannot be avoided.


Suppose, for the sake of discussion, that someone would openly stay in a

well-known address in Teheran, hosted by the Iranian Government and

financed by it, executing one atrocity after another in Spain or in France,

killing hundreds of innocent people, accepting responsibility for the crimes,

promising in public TV interviews to do more of the same, while the

Government of Iran issues public condemnations of his acts but continues to

host him, invite him to official functions and treat him as a great dignitary. I

leave it to you as homework to figure out what Spain or France would have

done, in such a situation.


The problem is that the civilized world is still having illusions about the rule of

law in a totally lawless environment. It is trying to play ice hockey by sending

a ballerina ice-skater into the rink or to knock out a heavyweight boxer by a

chess player. In the same way that no country has a law against cannibals

eating its prime minister, because such an act is unthinkable, international law

does not address killers shooting from hospitals, mosques and ambulances,

while being protected by their Government or society. International law does

not know how to handle someone who sends children to throw stones, stands

behind them and shoots with immunity and cannot be arrested because he is

sheltered by a Government. International law does not know how to deal with

a leader of murderers who is royally and comfortably hosted by a country,

which pretends to condemn his acts or just claims to be too weak to arrest

him. The amazing thing is that all of these crooks demand protection under

international law and define all those who attack them as war criminals, with

some Western media repeating the allegations. The good news is that all of

this is temporary, because the evolution of international law has always

adapted itself to reality. The punishment for suicide murder should be death

or arrest before the murder, not during and not after. After every world war,

the rules of international law have changed and the same will happen after

the present one. But during the twilight zone, a lot of harm can be done.




The picture I described here is not pretty. What can we do about it? In the

short run, only fight and win. In the long run ? only educate the next

generation and open it to the world. The inner circles can and must be

destroyed by force. The outer circle cannot be eliminated by force. Here

we need financial starvation of the organizing elite, more power to women,

more education, counter propaganda, boycott whenever feasible and access

to Western media, internet and the international scene. Above all, we need

a total absolute unity and determination of the civilized world against all three

circles of evil.



Allow me, for a moment, to depart from my alleged role as a taxi driver and

return to science. When you have a malignant tumor, you may remove the

tumor itself surgically. You may also starve it by preventing new blood from

reaching it from other parts of the body, thereby preventing new "supplies"

from expanding the tumor. If you want to be sure, it is best to do both.



But before you fight and win, by force or otherwise, you have to realize that

you are in a war, and this may take Europe a few more years. In order to win,

it is necessary to first eliminate the terrorist regimes, so that no Government

in the world will serve as a safe haven for these people. I do not want to

comment here on whether the American-led attack on Iraq was justified from

the point of view of weapons of mass destruction or any other pre-war

argument, but I can look at the post-war map of Western Asia. Now that

Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya are out, two and a half terrorist states remain:

Iran, Syria and Lebanon, the latter being a Syrian colony. Perhaps Sudan

should be added to the list. As a result of the conquest of Afghanistan and

Iraq, both Iran and Syria are now totally surrounded by territories unfriendly

to them. Iran is encircled by Afghanistan, by the Gulf States, Iraq and the

Moslem republics of the former Soviet Union. Syria is surrounded by Turkey,

Iraq, Jordan and Israel. This is a significant strategic change and it applies

strong pressure on the terrorist countries. It is not surprising that Iran is so

active in trying to incite a Shiite uprising in Iraq. I do not know if the

American plan was actually to encircle both Iran and Syria, but that is the

resulting situation.


In my humble opinion, the number one danger to the world today is Iran and

its regime. It definitely has ambitions to rule vast areas and to expand in all

directions. It has an ideology, which claims supremacy over Western

culture. It is ruthless. It has proven that it can execute elaborate terrorist

acts without leaving too many traces, using Iranian Embassies. It is clearly

trying to develop Nuclear Weapons. Its so-called moderates and

conservatives play their own virtuoso version of the "good-cop versus bad-

cop" game. Iran sponsors Syrian terrorism, it is certainly behind much of the

action in Iraq, it is fully funding the Hizbullah and, through it, the Palestinian

Hamas and Islamic Jihad, it performed acts of terror at least in Europe and in

South America and probably also in Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia and it truly

leads a multi-national terror consortium, which includes, as minor players,

Syria, Lebanon and certain Shiite elements in Iraq. Nevertheless, most

European countries still trade with Iran, try to appease it and refuse to read

the clear signals.


In order to win the war it is also necessary to dry the financial resources of

the terror conglomerate. It is pointless to try to understand the subtle

differences between the Sunni terror of Al Qaida and Hamas and the Shiite

terror of Hizbullah, Sadr and other Iranian inspired enterprises. When it serves

their business needs, all of them collaborate beautifully.


It is crucial to stop Saudi and other financial support of the outer circle,

which is the fertile breeding ground of terror. It is important to monitor all

donations from the Western World to Islamic organizations, to monitor the

finances of international relief organizations and to react with forceful

economic measures to any small sign of financial aid to any of the three

circles of terrorism. It is also important to act decisively against the campaign

of lies and fabrications and to monitor those Western media who collaborate

with it out of naivety, financial interests or ignorance.



Above all, never surrender to terror. No one will ever know whether the

recent elections in Spain would have yielded a different result, if not for the

train bombings a few days earlier. But it really does not matter. What matters

is that the terrorists believe that they caused the result and that they won

by driving Spain out of Iraq. The Spanish story will surely end up being

extremely costly to other European countries, including France, who is now

expelling inciting preachers and forbidding veils and including others who sent

troops to Iraq. In the long run, Spain itself will pay even more.



Is the solution a democratic Arab world? If by democracy we mean free

elections but also free press, free speech, a functioning judicial system, civil

liberties, equality to women, free international travel, exposure to

international media and ideas, laws against racial incitement and against

defamation, and avoidance of lawless behavior regarding hospitals, places

of worship and children, then yes, democracy is the solution. If democracy is

just free elections, it is likely that the most fanatic regime will be elected, the

one whose incitement and fabrications are the most inflammatory. We have

seen it already in Algeria and, to a certain extent, in Turkey. It will happen

again, if the ground is not prepared very carefully. On the other hand, a

certain transition democracy, as in Jordan, may be a better temporary

solution, paving the way for the real thing, perhaps in the same way that an

immediate sudden democracy did not work in Russia and would not have

worked in China.



I have no doubt that the civilized world will prevail. But the longer it takes us

to understand the new landscape of this war, the more costly and painful the

victory will be. Europe, more than any other region, is the key. Its

understandable recoil from wars, following the horrors of World War II, may

cost thousands of additional innocent lives, before the tide will turn.

A most worthy long read.

Thanks for sharing.

Cliff notes please By?

Cliff notes please By? An interview he did after this...

http://www.milnet.com/geo-pol/interview-harari.html

A bit sensationalistic in spots and some of the reasoning seems at odds with itself [For instance, he at once casts aside poverty as a factor in terrorism but also notes how the wealthy and influential don't get involved] but overall a worthwhile read. I think he understates the extraordinary difficulty of transitioning the Middle East politically and culturally to a series of functional democratic states. At present, democracy is a waypoint for populist religious extremism to come to power and a furthering of the dysfunctionality he rightly emphasizes. While secularism allows a good framework around which to build a democratic system of government, it's a hard sell in the Middle East (and his point about the average age in the region and its susceptibility to extremist views isn't comforting).

Europe does need to rouse itself, and Russia needs to look at the big picture regarding Iran. Putting an end to our heroin (or MMO) like addiction to oil would be a step in the right direction as well.

Disinformation at time of war is an accepted tactic. But to stand,
day after day, and to make such preposterous statements, known to
everybody to be lies, without even being ridiculed in your own milieu, can only happen in this region.
Oh, I assure you sir, that sort of thing isn't limited to the Middle East. :rolleyes:

Excellent read, much to think upon.

Fandros

Wow, now that was a good read. Plenty of food for thought, but it also makes me wonder how many fatwahs (sp?) have been issued for him.

'Europe does need to rouse itself'

- I think you mean France and Germany.
There were, I believe, 11 European nations involved in the Iraq War, and several heavily committed European nations in Afghanistan, us being one of them - and currently still are.
Not to mention ourselves and the Spanish who have been attacked by Islamic terrorists. Aroused? We've been that way for a while. Unlike yourselves, police armed with machine guns is not a normal view in Trafalgar Square.

Europe can't really be defined by the isolationist Franco-German axis.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4722532.stm


this might help, though.

but I can look at the post-war map of Western Asia. Now that Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya are out, two and a half terrorist states remain:
Iran, Syria and Lebanon, the latter being a Syrian colony.Iraq was a terrorist state? And he forgets Saudi Arabia (he forgets it alot), which is the "blood" to be dried out. I don't see a big difference between post and pre war map, in term of islamic terrorism.

what Spain or France would have done, in such a situation.What have USA (or others) done yet? Invade Iraq? Again, what this has to do with war on terror?

What matters is that the terrorists believe that they caused the result and that they won by driving Spain out of Iraq.Like 9/11 made Bush re-elected, giving him opportunities to fuel hatred and lies spewed by these terrorists?

And you are right Halo, France (can't talk for Germany) never had terrorist attacks, and "vigie pirate" running since subway attacks in 1995 isn't an everyday reality, military "famas equiped" patrols in railstations or airports isn't something common.

When you have a malignant tumor, you may remove the tumor itself surgically. You may also starve it by preventing new blood from reaching it from other parts of the body, thereby preventing new "supplies" from expanding the tumor. If you want to be sure, it is best to do both. (bold mine)
Important word, compared to the "butchery" going on. Not in term of blood and gore, US and allies armies are as clean as they can be. But the current approach may remove the tumor, but it may as well kill the body.
What about, remove the blood, remove the health out of it, and when it will be weak and small, quickly and efficiently "destroy" it?

Other than these points, interested reading (even if the formatting sucks!! :p), learning how this region works is The way of winning, imho.

Another editorial...

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ijaz18feb18,0,6492979.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions (http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ijaz18feb18,0,6492979.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions)

Islamic truths
By Mansoor Ijaz
MANSOOR IJAZ is an American Muslim of Pakistani ancestry.

February 18, 2006

ANOTHER WEEK, another Muslim country burns in rage over months-old Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in an unflattering light. On Friday it was Libya, and earlier in the week it was my father's homeland, Pakistan, where violent protests were scattered across the nation. Some Muslims have decided that burning cities in defense of a prophet's teachings, which none of them seem willing to practice, is preferable to participating in rational debate about the myths and realities of a religion whose worst enemies are increasingly its own adherents.

This week's events should compel those of us who claim Islam as our system of philosophical guidance to ask hard questions of ourselves in order to revive the religion's essential foundation: justice, peaceful and tolerant coexistence, compassion, the search for knowledge and unwavering faith in the unity of God.

I am an American by birth and a Muslim by faith. For many of my American friends, I am a voice of reason in a sea of Islamist darkness, while many Muslims have called me an "Uncle Tom" for ingratiating myself with the vested interests they seek to destroy through their violence. Mostly, though, I try not to ignore the harsh realities the followers of my religion are often unwilling to face.

The first truth is that most Muslim ideologues are hypocrites. What has Osama bin Laden done for the victims of the 2004 tsunami or the shattered families who lost everything in the Pakistani earthquake last year? He did not build one school, offer one loaf of bread or pay for one vaccination. And yet he, not the devout Muslim doctors from California and Iowa who repair broken limbs and lives in the snowy peaks of Kashmir, speaks the loudest for what Muslims allegedly stand for. He has succeeded in presenting himself as the defender of Islam's poor, and the Western media has taken his jihadist message all the way to the bank.

The hypocrisy only starts there. Muslims and Arabs have done pitifully little to help improve the capacity of the Palestinian people to be good neighbors to their Israeli brethren. Take the money spent by any Middle Eastern royal family at a London hotel or Geneva resort during one month and you could build enough schools and medical clinics to take care of 1,000 Palestinian children for a year. Yet rather than educate and feed Palestinian and Muslim children so they may learn to settle differences through dialogue and debate, instead of by throwing rocks and wearing bombs, the Muslim "haves" put on a few telethons to raise paltry sums for the "have nots" to alleviate the guilt over their palatial gilded cages.

The second truth — one that the West needs to come to grips with — is that there is no such human persona as a "moderate Muslim." You either believe in the oneness of God or you don't. You either believe in the teachings of his prophet or you don't. You either learn those teachings and apply them to the circumstances of life in the country you have chosen to live in, or you shouldn't live there.

Haters of Islam use the simplicity and elegance of its black-and-white rigor for devious political advantage by classifying the Koran's religious edicts as the cult-like behavior of fanatics. The West would win a lot of hearts and minds if it only showed Islam as it really is — telling the story, for example, that the prophet Muhammad was one of the great commodity traders of all time because he based his dealings on uniquely Muslim values, or that the reason he had multiple wives was not for the sake of sex but to give proper homes to the children of women made widows during a time of war. The cartoon imbroglio offered Western media an opportunity to portray the prophet in his many dignified dimensions, not just the distorted ones; sadly, there were few takers.

But to look at angry Islam's reaction on television each night forces the question of what might be possible if all the lost energy of thousands of rioting Muslims went into the villages of Aceh to rebuild lost homes or into Kashmir to construct schools.

In fact, the most glaring truth is that Islam's mobsters fear the West has it right: that we have perfected the very system Islam's holy scriptures urged them to learn and practice. And having failed in their mission to lead their masses, they seek any excuse to demonize those of us in the West and to try to bring us down. They know they are losing the ideological struggle for hearts and minds, for life in all its different dimensions, and so they prepare themselves, and us, for Armageddon by starting fires everywhere in a display of Islamic unity intended to galvanize the masses they cannot feed, clothe, educate or house.

This is not Islam. And the faster its truest believers stand up and demonstrate its values and principles by actions, not words, the sooner a great religion will return to its rightful role as guide for nearly a quarter of humanity.

The second truth — one that the West needs to come to grips with — is that there is no such human persona as a "moderate Muslim." You either believe in the oneness of God or you don't. You either believe in the teachings of his prophet or you don't. You either learn those teachings and apply them to the circumstances of life in the country you have chosen to live in, or you shouldn't live there.

This is true, but at this point we don't apply the term "moderate" to Muslims in the same way we do to other religions. "Moderates" in the Islamic context are simply those who don't blow up other people's stuff (or other people) rather than Muslims who might have a drink now and then or not keep their women locked up 24/7.

Good piece, though. The "What has bin Laden done for you?" meme needs to be spread, though the writer presages the response -- that he is a turncoat lackey of the West.

Interesting view from Dennis Miller on these very points.

http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_13018.shtml

At least it appears to be his work. See I can't go out and do the research by actually asking Mr Miller.

Fandros

There are some good points and a few laughs, though the single means Miller presents by which we've "lost our moral weight" -- while it may be valid -- pales besides, for example, use of torture. I like his reversal of the situation (numbers of Jews vs. numbers of Muslims), but however that might change the course of the world, the real number that needs reversal is that of fanatics.

The line on algebra was great.

Interesting view from Dennis Miller on these very points.

http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_13018.shtml

At least it appears to be his work. See I can't go out and do the research by actually asking Mr Miller.

Fandros


OMG... www.snopes.com (http://www.snopes.com)

Great, I'm 0 for 2 today. /chuckle

Larry Miller instead of Dennis Miller eh?

Fandros

Here's (http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/miller.htm) the direct link at snopes.