U.S. Military taught officers course on "total war" against Islam

[Canadian Mojo]

Don't add fuel to the fire.

Are you familiar with the concept of a controlled burn? You know the forest will catch fire eventually so you set it alight deliberately while you have ability to deal with it.

It takes a special kind of fucked-up to view the entire world and the people in it as nothing more than a chess game where the only thing that matters in the end is that the king survives.

[DasFuchs]

Seeing as the tyt version of the story mentions that the course said that there is no such thing as moderate Islam it would not be just fundies

I meant the belief system as a whole.   Mainstream Islamic belief is the the Quran was dictated by God and is absolute.

So you would use a fundamentalist mentality to do away with fundamentalists....You are completely nuts

I said no such thing.  In fact, I clarified my position earlier in the thread.

You people don't even read what I write, do you?

I see that now...perhaps being a bit clearer at first would help? See, you said this;
"I will be honest with you, I am not sure how I feel about this.  A global clash of civilizations would be utterly horrific, and would probably dwarf both World Wars in terms of body count.  On the other hand, the defeat of a fundamentalist belief system would probably mean a long-term gain for all humanity."

Which, to me and it seems a lot of others that you were willing to back the notion of blowing the ever living shit out of Islam as a solution

[ironbite]

To be honest, I suspect the only way to stop Fundementalism from ever cropping up would be to kill 'everyone'.

Which is really not a good idea.

Nobody can be a fundie if everyone else is dead.

[Danarth]

To be honest, I suspect the only way to stop Fundementalism from ever cropping up would be to kill 'everyone'.

Which is really not a good idea.

Nobody can be a fundie if everyone else is dead.

I know, but a world where everyone else is dead would be dull. I mean, there is a limit to the fun one can have on their own....
.

a higher standard of living for people could no doubt minimize the incidents of fundementalism

This.

As for my comment about higher education and a high standard of living reducing instances of Fundementalism, I seperating the two is probably meaningless. A higher level of education with a greater emphasis on critical thinking 'would' be part of a higher standard of living. Especially the critical thinking

[The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist]

How exactly is bombing Mecca off the face of the earth supposed to end the threat of radical Muslims? If anything, it'll just piss them off even more.

Along with creating a boatload of new extremists. The only people it would scare into pacifism are the ones who were never a threat in the first place.

[largeham]

a higher standard of living for people could no doubt minimize the incidents of fundementalism

This.

Not necessarily, the US has high standards of education and it has a quite large fundie base. Or look at the rise of fundamentalism in North Africa and India.

[Danarth]

a higher standard of living for people could no doubt minimize the incidents of fundementalism

This.

Not necessarily, the US has high standards of education and it has a quite large fundie base. Or look at the rise of fundamentalism in North Africa and India.

Well, perhaps what is needed at least in the case of education is not just a higher standard but also a fundemental shift in how students are taught.
 An emphasis on how to think critically and how to apply that critical thinking should certainly be a big part of education.  Reducing the reliance of on tests and exams as a mark of progress and achievement and rather use them to help illustrate any particular weaknesses a student might have could also improve quality. I would say certainly scrap mulitple choice tests because they really aren't anything but a student repeating something by rote and that's really not learning.

So, maybe it would be better to argue for an increase in the quality of education rather than the standard.

Of course, Education alone no matter the quality wouldn't solve the problem, it would need to be raising the Quality of life in general, which means access to public facilities, healthcare, training for work, social activities such as sporting clubs and the like. I am sure there are some ideas that I have missed out there but those are the some of the ones I think are important.

 A higher quality of life, I imagine, would reduce the feeling of helplessness and isolation that would assuredly drive people towards a fundementalist belief where, despite the repressing, opressive nature that can come with such beliefs, the person involved at least has some sense of belonging and community which is important for human beings, after all, we do not function well on our own.

[Fpqxz]

Of course, Education alone no matter the quality wouldn't solve the problem, it would need to be raising the Quality of life in general, which means access to public facilities, healthcare, training for work, social activities such as sporting clubs and the like. I am sure there are some ideas that I have missed out there but those are the some of the ones I think are important.

 A higher quality of life, I imagine, would reduce the feeling of helplessness and isolation that would assuredly drive people towards a fundementalist belief where, despite the repressing, opressive nature that can come with such beliefs, the person involved at least has some sense of belonging and community which is important for human beings, after all, we do not function well on our own.

Eliminating poverty and unemployment, and the sense of hopelessness that goes along with them, will probably reduce the number of people (especially young men) who would willingly volunteer to commit terrorist violence.  It won't necessarily eliminate the sort of coercion to join that is often exercised by terrorist groups, which is in no way limited to religious-based terrorist groups (just ask the AUC and FARC in Colombia).

[Yla]

You'll get no arguments from me on that point.  The only differences are that 1) right now, the West is not in conflict with the Vatican or with Judaism, and 2) neither of these religions has the sort of expansionist doctrines that Islam has (at least, not in the present day).

"The West" (which is a ridiculously constructed and generalizing concept by itself) is not in conflict with Islam either, or any representative of Islam as a whole. (partially because none exist, partially because it just isn't). Your second point has been addressed by others.

A political entity can not be in conflict with a religious entity, unless either the political entity gains religious aspects (not), or the religious entity gains political aspects (i.e. fundies of all colors, in our case the Qaida).

[largeham]

Of course, Education alone no matter the quality wouldn't solve the problem, it would need to be raising the Quality of life in general, which means access to public facilities, healthcare, training for work, social activities such as sporting clubs and the like. I am sure there are some ideas that I have missed out there but those are the some of the ones I think are important.

 A higher quality of life, I imagine, would reduce the feeling of helplessness and isolation that would assuredly drive people towards a fundementalist belief where, despite the repressing, opressive nature that can come with such beliefs, the person involved at least has some sense of belonging and community which is important for human beings, after all, we do not function well on our own.

This I completely agree with. What drives the average shcumck to religion? Generally it is a way of trying to deal with their daily shitty lives. People generally pull out the Marx quote 'Religion is the opium of the masses' as an short way of saying that it is a brainwashing thing (not that I disagree with that in general), however Marx meant (look at the rest of the quote, not just the first line) opium as a a type of morphine, a way of dealing with pain and alienation.