[E Rocc]

Dale Carnegie's advice may make sense to the open hearted and generous American type but is plainly ineffective with Muslims or other ideologically fanaticized populations. Let me try once more - This is about war not about winning friends and influencing people. The enemy has made itself clear and that is that the "American system" is evil. American Muslim silence and excuse ridden mumblings in reaction to 9/11 clearly implies that their support for America is non existent at worst and mildly laconic at best. They will have to either engage in a positive way or extract themselves from the hive mentality most Muslims seem to be addicted to.

Fortunately the US government does not agree. Our fight is with a small number of radical fundamentalist Moslems, not with all one billion of them. If you look at the four largest predominantly Islamic nations in the world, two (Indonesia and Turkey) have secular governments, one (Pakistan) is cracking down on the fanatics, and the fourth is facing a popular backlash against its theocracy (Iran).

American Muslim "silence" is largely a myth. To the extent that it exists, it exists for many reasons which have nothing to do with any support for the fanatics or lack of support for America.

-Eric

[eleni121]

This adminstration unlike the amoral corrupt previous one actually understands the fundamentals of international power play and ideological struggle. It's fine and dandy for you to take at face value what the President and his advisors publicly state for the media (good Muslims vs Bad ones)but it is another matter completely to realize that what they are actually doing to preserve the security of this nation is far more complex. Here is something about Muslim ideology you may not understand. It's not that the muslim masses do not support Bin Laden and Hamas and Hezbollah loonies because they most certainly do. But the masses will not act upon their fanatic hatred for the west when they are leaderless. The hive analogy works beautifully with Muslims - without the top bosses in place, the workers of the colony are lost.

My point about American Muslim silence stands. By maintaining silence, they alienate others and cast suspicion upon themselves. They risk all sorts of negative reactions from loyal Americans. They do this knowing how Americans feel. Proof positive about where their loyalties lie.