The only way to win the war on the noun "terror"

[Taverner]

It seems like Bush and our government at large seems like they just want to repeat the same mistakes, over and over, expecting different results. War in Iraq not working? Send more troops to their deaths! AAAAARRGH!

So, if I were going to develop a policy, it would be made up of this:

1 - Get off oil. Seriously - that is the ONLY way they get money. We stop using oil, we stop their money and they go back to trading patchouli along the silk road.

Besides, we're fucking up the atmosphere with that shit in ways you can't even imagine. Start throwing the $$$ we are wasting in these needless wars into R&D for Fuel Cells, Solar, Cold Fusion and Biodeisel research. Let's get a non-fossil fuel car standard on the road by 2010.

2 - While we develop this tech, make nice with Venezuela (trust me, they don't hate US they hate our series of psychopathic presidents) and live of their and domestic oil until that tech is standard.

3 - Gear up for a Saudi pullout of the real estate market. It's going to hurt, but if we prepare we can make it less painful. When we go about bringing their economy to its knees by not buying oil, Saudi Royalty will not be happy and they will pull out of all the real estate they have invested in over the years.

4 - STOP SELLING THEM WEAPONS!!! All of the "bad guys" after us now (and in the past) are fighting us with our weapons that we sold them. We sold Iran weapons during Iran-Contra, we sold Iraq WMDs to kill the Kurds under Sadaaam, and we trained and armed Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan. Stop it - now! Haven't we fucking learned?

[Kelly Rupert]

1. Oil is a fungible commodity.

It doesn't matter who we buy it from. One bit. All that matters is that it's being bought. However, supposing the US magically not needing any petrol-derived products was feasible, and we stopped using oil tomorrow (and so did the Chinese, and so did the EU, and so did the Russians, and so did India, and so did the developing world), I have to think that plunging the Middle East into economic depression probably won't turn the region into a paragon of stability.

[jobycom]

2. Or....

Pay them for their natural resource rather than stealing it and propping up oppressive governments who will give us the deals we want while on the one hand violently squashing their own people when they complain and with the other hand privately funding and supporting extremists to turn their anger towards our citizens instead of against their own oppressive governments. In other words, act like the American ideal is applicable to all humans, not just Americans.

But that runs up gas and heating costs back here, and no one wants to pay market value for something just to save a few hundred thousand non-white lives overseas.

[Taverner]

5. Even if we do that, there will be many who will still want to kill us

Granted, the numbers might go down - but "why they hate us" isn't all economic

[jobycom]

6. Give me a breakdown on it, then

Why do you think they hate us, and what reasons would us treating them fairly not alleviate? And what estimates do you have on the percentages of people who would still want to kill us?

[Taverner]

7. Treating them fairly is a great start

But not the whole picture...

1 - There are a large amount who hate us because of what we have done to their families, friends, country (bombing it and killing indiscriminately. Iraq, Afghanistan are cases of this). It will take time to heal these wounds, but look at Vietnam - time has healed some of those wounds there. Basically they need their space, much like a bad relationship.

2- There are also a large amount who hate us for our support of Israel. Now, if we got Israel to play fair, that number would shrink some, but there are enough who would still hate us because they are against the very idea of the Israeli state.

3 - But there are also a number of those who were trained in the madrassas and Islamic schools to hate America. This may sound like reactionary talk, but that doesn't detract from the fact that they do. Islamic Fundamentalists have a "convert or die" mentality - not unlike our Christian Fundamentalist assholes who carry the same philosophy. Osama is in this camp.


Again, doing what we've been doing has only brought comfort and aid to the enemy (group 3) and increased their numbers.

Now I personally think we should get the fuck out of the Mideast altogether. That's not our place, and we bring no value to the situation. In fact, we remove value just by our mere presence. And I also see no reason why we should support governments like Saudi Arabia and the other fiefdoms - so get off oil and see how long the Saudi family stays on their thrones.

There are a lot of issues in the Mideast and they are their issues to solve, not ours.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. I say we burn all the dictionaries.

[StrictlyRockers]

4. 451 degrees - that's the right temperature I think.