a possible strategy is to strengthen relationships with moderates and marginalize the extremists, no? then the fish can't swim in the water, they will flop around on the land until napalm sucks all their remaining oxygen away. . .hey! ( lorenzo shakes a tambourine! )

<the problem is that we are inadequate as a culture to do what needs to be done. our educational system is weak in the lower levels, our economy is weak, our morale is weak and our ability to have strong endurance behind a very complex and sophisticated strategy is lacking. >

You're absolutely right, Lorenzo. We are inadequate as a culture to do what needs to be done. You are right, Lorenzo, our education system is weak. You can see evidence of that in the US Politics Tribe every day. We have a very weak morale. Look at the last five presidents. No nation with any sort of self respect would have had any of them as dogcatcher. Doesn't that just suck for us?

Alas, we are involved in the Middle East. We have been involved in the Middle East for a hundred years. The Middle East has shaped this culture through the oil trade. The only thing that made the automobile profitable was the cheap, easy to refine, Middle Eastern oil. At the same time, we have inevitably shaped Middle Eastern politics through our Spy vs. Spy bullshit cold war games with the Soviets. The Soviet Union copped out on their responsibilities. They broke up and left us holding the bag.

Like it or not, we are dependent on the Middle East to maintain our economy, our industry, and our way of life. We should have started the process of independence during the first oil embargo during the Nixon Administration. We just went along oblivious to the warning signs. Today the Middle East owns our asses. We are in debt to Saudi Arabia for billions of dollars. Bush sent the troops into Iraq and Afghanistan and borrowed the money to pay for it. Now to keep from having them call in the debt or stop the oil flow, we have to kiss Arab ass. Maybe this will clarify the real reason America has suddenly gone pro-terrorist.

www.thejidf.org/2009/11/ob...st-for.html

So what are we going to do, Lorenzo? Maybe we should just give up and buy us some rugs? We have to do something and that something has to be based on reality on not on Public Relations or wishful thinking. A culture that has not made any social progress in nearly 1,000 years owns us. What are we going to do? Nothing is not an option.

**************the problem is that we are inadequate as a culture to do what needs to be done. our educational system is weak in the lower levels, our economy is weak, our morale is weak and our ability to have strong endurance behind a very complex and sophisticated strategy is lacking.*********************

There's a lot of subjective material in there wouldn't you agree?


**********we have poor leadership at nearly every level. so we really aren't going to get there. the best we can hope for is to keep things cool and seduce their youth with western pop culture and build our economy so that it is robust and independent.************

Leadership is always going to be a problem.
Think about what it means to hold elected office in the United States.
You get to hold the reigns of power. A very intoxicating drug is power.
What sort of person is going to put themselves ( and their family) through the gauntlet to be elected to office?

Look at what the left did to Sarah Palin and her family.
Nearly all of the national media behaved in ways that can only be described as : Hideous, pure evil, mean spirited, and lying.
Then even after the election they wouldn't stop. The lies continued. For no reason at all (other than mean spirited evil) the media types sought to promote that trailer park ex boyfriend to the national spotlight and to milk him for any and all things he could be coerced to say or represent by his own trash persona that could be construed as negative about Palin.

*********but like i said earlier, i am not very optimistic about anything. there is no reason to hope that we are going to solve any of our major problems. the country is just too constipated and too stupid. sorry. .*****************

When in all of human history have the major problem,s been solved?
I mean problems as you are inclined to identify them.

Jesus Christ observed that you will always have the poor among you - as a problem.
It's been that way before his observation and it's remained that way since.

Here Lorenzo, what about the idea that suggests that poverty is a good thing? That it serves a great many functions.
Not the least might be that it provides the hell, the Gehenna, the place in outer darkness where their is only wailing and gnashing of teeth to which you are exiled if you fail to compete effectively.

Poverty is the spur in the sides of people to drive them forward.

You need poverty. You want people whose station in life is so far beneath yours that you can safely make the comparison and tell yourself that you are more worthy than those others. Deep down in places you don't talk about among common company you enjoy that there are people whose misery is so great that some trivial effort on your part can be seen as a great boon to them allowing you the nobility of philanthropy with no more effort than it takes to write a check. Poor people are your balancing weights. The poor make it possible for you to pretend that you don't see the real wealthy people who can afford multi-billion dollar yachts and other insanely costly play toys. With the poor you always have some one whose station is worse than yours informing you that no matter what a failure you might be - - you are not that bad.