[extropy-chat] POLITICS: terrorism and strategies

paul.bridger paul.bridger at paradise.net.nz
Fri Jun 25 04:46:12 UTC 2004


To explain more fully what I meant by the 'Obviously' thing:
The US has a problem with how a part of the world ("the terrorists") 
interacts with it (flying planes into buildings, RPGing occupying troops 
etc.). It seems self-evident to me that the only influence the US has on the 
behaviour of people elsewhere in the world is in how it behaves with respect 
to those people, ie. foreign-policy.

Now that I am looking more closely at my statement, I am wishing I had said 
something more interesting.

 > Many of the people planting bombs in the Sunni triangle
 > in Iraq don't care about U.S. foreign policy.

I thought these people wanted the US to leave. US presence is a result of 
their foreign policy.


Robert J. Bradbury wrote:

> On Fri, 25 Jun 2004, paul.bridger wrote:
> 
> 
>>If you really want to solve the US problem with terrorism, change the cause.
>>US foreign policy is the cause. Obviously.
> 
> 
> Paul -- I will not hesitate to agree that U.S. Foreign Policy is problematic.
> If I review U.S. history over the last 1.5 years it looks like the State Dept.
> had many more correct calls than the Defense Dept. (even taking into account
> when the State Dept. was being mislead by inaccurate intelligence information).
> 
> *But* your statement asserts that "US foreign policy is the cause".
> I would assert that irrational thought patterns that are imbedded in
> individuals in Arab/Muslim countries are the source of at least a
> major part of the problem (these are explained in greater detail
> in Friedman's essays in the NY Times regarding the madrassas).
> 
> One could extend the discussion to politicians in Latin or South
> American countries who view graft as an acceptable part of the
> political process in this discussion.  But politicians in Latin
> or South American are not (generally) currently engaged in
> violence which may terminate the lives of potentially extropic
> or transhumanistic individuals.
> 
> I find it hard to believe you can blame U.S. foreign policy for
> all of the problems that corrupt mind sets of individuals
> around the world.  It seems much more probable that one is
> dealing with simple human traits like greed or ambition.
> Many of the people planting bombs in the Sunni triangle
> in Iraq don't care about U.S. foreign policy.  They simply
> only care about their own personal power.
> 
> So to sell the "obviously" point you need to (at least IMO)
> throw more meat on the table.
> 
> Robert
> 
> 
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