[Southack]

[don-o]

bump for after Jeopardy.

[rageaholic]

Poverty doesn't cause terrorism. Islam causes terrorism.

[livius]

Interesting article. Coming back to read the whole thing later when I have time.

[tsomer]

Looks good, will read later

[Sen Jack S. Fogbound]

Excellent read! I'm going to send this to O'Reilly, Cheney, and Bush as well as my Congressman.

This guy tells it like it is, and it is something se all need to hear!

[GSlob]

Is the title misleading? Who is "respected muslim"? Haim Harari is an Israeli scientist, and, judging from the name, a Jew.

[Smogger]

bump

[Carry_Okie]

Excellent post (I mean it). The background in the first half of the article is unusually succinct and forthright, but I do have a couple of quibbles to the remedial strategy Mr. Harari is offering here:

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.

First, he's leaving out a critical player, Pakistan. If the fundies take over there, they already have the nukes. Leaving Pakistan with its huge and largely radicalized population out of the discussion is, a mistake. Whether Musharraf is a friend or not, it is perilous to leave them off the list when contemplating the strategic resources necessary to win.

Second, the US still has to contend with China AND Chinese sponsored fronts around the world. As he already offered, some forms of Islamic terror have communist affiliation. America must deal with terrorism with the realization that its use to weaken us before a fatal blow may in fact be an early feint in a much more dangerous conflict. In my judgment, his focus exclusively upon Islamic terror, is an Israeli-centric perspective that may be critically short-sighted.

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 Hezbollah, Sadr and other Iranian inspired enterprises. When it serves their business needs, all of them collaborate beautifully.

Finally, he never discusses HOW to cut off the money. by developing alternative energy resources. Just as Reagan critically wounded the Soviet Union by decontrolling oil prices in the US to increase domestic exploration, so we must develop all our resources, coal, nuclear, biomass, and petrochemical, to eliminate the source of funding of Arab terror as well as to strengthen the economy that funds our defense in the long run. The key there is our own regulatory straitjacket, particularly environmental law.

ONLY after we bring the Islamic world to its economic knees will the funding for the madrassas dry up.

[Christian4Bush]

C4Bush Library BUMP!

[BunnySlippers]

Bump and read later.

[diamond6]

ping

[Blue Jays]

"Holy long article to read later, Batman!" BUMP.

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

Bump.

[AdmSmith]

read this.

[Gritty]

Here is one Muslim who seems to get it. He makes a lot of sense, although he does not address that nearly all Muslim regimes and large numbers of indigenous Western Muslim populations will have to be dealt with as well before this war is over. This is not just about neutralizing Syria, Lebanon and Iran.

The reason is they, and the populations which rule and inhabit them, are Muslim. The entire pathology of backwardness and stunning oppression exhibited here springs from that poisoned well.

[2banana]

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.

An excellent read. Excellent data.

[Bennett46]

Please provide a link for this excellent commentary.

I would like to be able to send this on to many friends and to quite a few resistant progressive acquaintances.

Thank you for posting this.

[Finny]

Wow -- thanks for posting this! This is the most important, vital thing I've read on Free Republic since I signed up. THANKS.

One thing I'd like to know .. who is this guy? Is he Muslim, or a Jew? What company did he speak to? I can't help but hope he's a Muslim. What really fries me is that it shouldn't matter -- what he says here is right on and eloquent, clear-sighted, humble. It shouldn't be discounted if the speaker is a Jew. But by many people, it would be.

[nuconvert]

Very Good.

Where's the URL?
What's with the commentary in parentheses? Is he Jewish or muslim?