kane

As crazy as it might sound it isn't a terrible idea. One of the problems with the middle east is that they have a huge separation of wealth. They have a very small number of people who are extremely wealthy and a huge number of people who live in poverty and have little or no education. Much of what education they do get is based in radical religious teachings. Add into that a government controlled media and many people in these countries have no real world knowledge of the US other than what they are told. Then they see something like Iraq and it just reinforces what they were told. A great example is when Israel recently attacked Lebanon. After they shelled and destroyed some areas of the city members of Hamas were in those neighborhoods handing cash to the people who had lost their homes and helping them rebuild and relocate. You know many of those people are now (if they weren't already) Hamas sympathizers and I wouldn't be shocked to learn that some of them full on joined the group and took up arms.

Afghanistan also teaches us a great lesson. We backed Bin Laden and Afghanistan when they fought back the Russians. But when that fight ended we did nothing to help rebuild the country or offer the people of that country any kind of future. When you are poor and hungry and scared it breeds an environment for radicals. So the Taliban moves in and they provide so people don't question. We saw it on a small scale here in the US after 9/11. If they had tried to pass the patriot act 2 years prior to 9/11 it would have died in committee and been a black eye on anyone who authored or supported it. But after 9/11 people were scared and they wanted to be reassured that they would be okay and nobody questioned it. It is why so much of the country agreed with the invasion of Iraq because we were told they were part of the attack on us.

You can also look at parts of Africa and see this. People are starving so religious groups go in and feed them and help educate them and in the process they tell them that using condoms is bad and will send you to hell and the people that are poor, undereducated and scared believe.

If we somehow can destroy much of Al Queda and get Bin Laden and secure Afghanistan so that the Taliban can't take control again we have to make sure that we do something to help push the people towards their own independence so that they have options and are not as susceptible to radicalism.

But, in the end, I fear we can never beat terrorism nor can we really make much of a dent in it on a large scale. Too much of that part of the world lives in poverty and ignorance (and I don't mean that in a bad way, they just know no better because of their environment and place and ways in which they were raised) for there ever to be any real understanding between us.