Notice the race is on to get aid into Southern Lebanon. It's a hearts and minds competition.

Originally Posted by Young Winston

Notice the race is on to get aid into Southern Lebanon. It's a hearts and minds competition.

Without really understanding the people who live in the region ... this is the same problem that the administration and the State Department keep making.

Trying to win the hearts and minds of the people without understanding them is a sure path to disaster and failure. Many of the Middle Eastern experts have been trying to convince the State Department and more than one administration of this "truth" without any success.

Notice just how many victories we have had during the last twenty years when it comes to winning the hearts and minds of ANY Middle Eastern country ...... ABSOLUTELY ZERO (0).

I feel that Bush's administration never really respect the arbic people though they look like. Deep gap in the understanding about religion and states means that Americans never conquver the arbic world.

Damn they're onto us... foiled again in our attempts to conquer the "arbic" world. Damn you all to pieces!

Speaking of conquering the "arbic" world how's that whole xinjiang-uighurs-independance thing going for the big red chicken? Yeah, didn't think so.

NEXT!

Originally Posted by bulldogg

Damn they're onto us... foiled again in our attempts to conquer the "arbic" world. Damn you all to pieces!

Speaking of conquering the "arbic" world how's that whole xinjiang-uighurs-independance thing going for the big red chicken? Yeah, didn't think so.

NEXT!

Be polite. Discussion is good,offense is bad.

Originally Posted by b2ee

I feel that Bush's administration never really respect the arbic people though they look like. Deep gap in the understanding about religion and states means that Americans never conquver the arbic world.

Uh, Americans do not want to conquer the Arabic world.

Contrary to some opinions America and her people want to be left alone to live life in peace and prosperity.

If it was left up to me the USA would become an isolationist state and tell the world to get bent until we fix ourselves. The we turn on the "evil" in the world and "fix" it one thing at a time.

Originally Posted by Marinerhodes

Uh, Americans do not want to conquer the Arabic world.

Contrary to some opinions America and her people want to be left alone to live life in peace and prosperity.

If it was left up to me the USA would become an isolationist state and tell the world to get bent until we fix ourselves. The we turn on the "evil" in the world and "fix" it one thing at a time.

But you still need Middle East oil. Don't think becoming an isolationist state will work. The World is just too complicated to do that.

The mideast oil and other imported resources are pretty much the main reason we can't become isolationist. Not like we can ever go back to that point, but we really need to focus on domestic issues again. I figure if the government just concentrated on Its people as a priority, then all sorts of positive things will result from it. If it's working for brazil, europe, and japan then i think it's plausible for us as well.

Originally Posted by WarMachine

The mideast oil and other imported resources are pretty much the main reason we can't become isolationist. Not like we can ever go back to that point, but we really need to focus on domestic issues again. I figure if the government just concentrated on Its people as a priority, then all sorts of positive things will result from it. If it's working for brazil, europe, and japan then i think it's plausible for us as well.

According to the experts, the United Stated is the third largest producer of oil in the world, but because of our monstrous demand, OPEC is able to exert a pressure on a per barrel cost all out of proportion to the cost of production.

Until the US weens itself off of the petroleum standard of energy, the US will be at the whim and calling of the OPEC nations. Alternative fuel sources are the ONLY hope that this situation can be turned around and so far, the government is NOT "aggressively" pursuing research.

Well we have corn and windmills, that has to do something. The real problem is our own energy use just keeps climbing while we try to look for other sources of energy. I figure if people just realized how much energy could be saved if they became more energy efficient, then we could finally start going towards the right direction with this.

But nothing short of a crisis makes people en masse save energy. Like here in California several years ago when there was an energy shortage, people saved up a lot of energy, then went back to using it like normal after the problems were fixed. If we could have that energy saving mentality all the time, then the transition to alternate sources of energy would be much easier. I guess one can only dream about it at this point.