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Originally Posted by BigV
Adak, you seem determined to view these issues through a lens of religion, and I think that distorts what you see. Do you consider the war in Afghanistan a religious one? On our part? On the part of our enemy? Who is our enemy? Are we fighting against their religion?
Why do you insist that it will be MUSLIMS who are intent on starting a war?
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Yes, I am determined to view these issues through the lens of religion, because the countries in the Middle East that have gone to war recently, view their fight through the lens of religion.
Islam is not just a religion. It is a religion with a substantial ideology that may go hand in hand, with it.
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I think your view would be much clearer if you substituted POWER for RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS in much of what you've said here. The number of non-violent Muslims is many thousands of times greater than the number of violent Muslims, for Islam's sake. Just as it is for Christians. And for Jews.
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Yes, but the non-violent Muslims have not been able to rein in the spread of the violent ideology of their fellow faithful. As long as Muslim schools, orphanages, and mosques are preaching how the infidel, the Christian, and the Jew, are all worth something akin to the pig, and that violence against others is OK, there will be religious violence. You can call it Jihad or anything you like, but it's killing, and Muslims are the one's doing it (far more than anyone else), worldwide.
People are susceptible to propaganda. They will come to believe what they hear over and over, eventually.
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Perhaps... let's take that as a starting point. If you think that's their position, then what? Attack? Since they'll never disarm? You, yourself, have to be the person who says
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I'm all in favor of peace, but I know better than to believe that the leaders in Iran, feel the same way. They've made their "sweep Israeli's into the sea" speech, too many times to somehow keep ignoring it. It isn't just that I'm tired of hearing their saber-rattling. (Which I am). It's that I believe they intend to do just that. It won't be this year. It won't be next year, it may not be for another 10-20 years, but they will attack Israel. No doubt in my mind. You can't just keep saying you're going to attack another country, and then never attack them - you lose all credibility with your people.
If they have nuclear weapons, I'm not sure they would use them, but they might. Who knows?
I know I don't want to see nuclear weapons proliferation, in the Middle East, for sure. THAT would be a recipe for disaster.
Right now, our best option is to see if the sanctions will collapse their economy, and thus force the Iranian leaders to stop their program to enrich Uranium. That's a hard thing to cause, but far better than a war.