Apart from the lads at the sharp end in Afghanistan and Iraq, I suppose the terrorist situation potentially affects me very much, working in Saudi.
The terrorists don't care who gets killed and injured including their fellow Muslims.
There have been many security changes here over the last year and so far The Saudi Government has done a good job. I have armed soldiers on my residential compound round the clock, as on all compounds.
I know what I would do with the terrorists.

Cheers
Peter

Peter --- I know I speak for all of us when I say, keep your head down and wear your helmet at all times. I trust you will send us some of your observations on the terrorist situation and help us to better understand exactly what we are up against.
thanks
DJ

Thanks for the concern.
If anything develops you'll be amongst the first to know.
The sad thing is there are many nice local people here, but now get tarred with the same brush and its a big brush.
Bye for now...keeping the 'ole bonce down...I've never noticed that about my knees before.....
Cheers
Peter

This all goes back to the Whahabi school of fundamentalist Islam that is funded and supported by the Saudi Royal family, and other Muslims the world over.

There are 1.2 BILLION muslims, if even 1% are fundamentalist Whahabi "Islamofascists" that is over 1 MILLION potential terrorists.

They believe that Western Civilization is too permissive, too rich, inspired by an ungodly religion (Christianity) and practised by "Devils" (That is us) They want all of us to reuturn to the 11th Century state of Islam ruled by a VERY strict interpretation of the Koran AND NO deviation is to be permitted (Even though they conviently forget how tolerant the 11th Century Islamic State in reality was)

Simply put they want ALL of Palestine (River to the Sea) they want all of Europe(stated by the Imans in France and Netherlands), they want the WHOLE world to be one big 11th Century Islamic state

Of the over 200 armed conflicts and insurrections going on in the world 98% are caused by Muslim minorities who want their fundamentalist Islamic state of one sort or another.

In AD 700 one jihad was stopped at Portiers by a Frankish army. Another was turned back by the Spaniards in the 16th Century. After the 12th Century reconquest of Jerusalem by the forces of Salah-el-Din another Christain led army would not enter the holy city until 1918.

This war has been going on quite awhile, and we are merely entering another stage. It is our civilization versus theirs. Either Western Civilization of the 21st Century will flourish (with all its acknowledged faults) or we will be conquered and revert to the staid world of the fundamentalist Whahabi Muslim.

The world faced this crisis before, maybe "dubya" Bush is our new Charles Martel and hopefully the world will listen and we will destroy this closed-minded "Islamofascism" once and for all.

If not, y'all better start learning Arabic and the Koran.

Steve--- certainly an interesting perspective on the danger of terrorism to our society. It is a pity that Europe does not appear to regard it as such. In reality, they certainly are not open to an influx of new immigration. Witness their reaction to the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. They shut the borders and yelled for us to bail them out. Now, we are stuck there for the foreseeable future. The problem for the entire world is how to attain a standard of living unhindered by the madness of those too lazy to work and earn a similar level of life. I am for the current administration's policy of killing them there rather than here. In the wake of runnning the cockroaches out of their holes we have to fill in the voids by showing the vast bulk of people the benefits of free trade and access. Enlisting their help in policing their own neighborhood comes through patient effort. We are not a patient society....so, I wonder how long we can continue this effort in Iraq.
How about you?
DJ

Our society does NOT have a choice. if we do not fight this battle here and now, and fight to win, Western Civilization of the past two millenia will be replaced by the rule of fundamentalist Islam.

Whether it is Indonesia, the Philipines or Iraq, the terrorists must be hunted down and extinguished.

We should also remember that our culture has won this battle before. Do I need to remind you of the Egyptian/Imperial army that destroyed the Mahdi in the Sudan in 1898 (yes, it was the forces of radical fundamentalist Islam) or the US Marines to the shores of Tripoli to stop the Barbary Pirates (19th century terrorism was piracy and yes I know we did not stop them in 1801, but the 1816 Royal Navy/US/French Navy expedition did)

Then there was the greatest terrorist scourge of all time. It was ruled by a mad old man who lived in a cave on a mountain. (sound familar) He ruled a massive organization of terrorists who carried out extortion, assassination and other crimes that literally terrorized the leaders of the nations of the world. It wasn't Osama bin Laden. It was the "Old Man of the Mountain" the ruler of the assassins, who were an off-shoot of an earlier form of radical Islam; the Sufis. At one point he made the mistake of threatening the leader of the greatest power in the world. The armies of this power hunted down every member of the group and killed them. They then found their secret hide-out and razed it to the ground and killed all the members, and then publicly displayed the bodies to ensure all knew this scourge was ended.

When asked why they were doing this by the imams, this power replied "Because your god is angry with you and I am his wrath." They were the the first truly modern army; the Mongols.

Steve-- certainly some interesting historical points. I do not in a minute disagree that you have to track down these criminals and that takes time and patience. As evidenced by the recent spat over WMD in Iraq, the mere appearence of a mistake (ie. no WMDs in Iraq) leads to a political firestorm fanned by partisan interest. Can you imagine seeing US troops bulldoze or dynamite someone's home? Remember the Zippo photos from Vietnam? So, my point is that any nation seeking to counter terrorism needs a powerful majority sentiment to undertake actions and a deep desire to see it through to the end. Unfortunately, the powerful majority sentiment only comes around when there is a tragedy (Pearl Harbor, 9/11). We need to understand that there are very bad guys in the world and the only way to get them before they get us is to hunt them down. We are doing that now, but we have to continue doing it. Can we?
DJ

America has waged unpopular wars to their proper conclusion before, the leadership has to be committed and NOT listen to the nay-sayers.
Besides the media has their own agenda and it isn't to support our war efforts. Unfortunately, they are all stuck in a "Post-Vietnam" liberal/socialist mindset that they have incolcated into them in journalism school.
Most know and understand far less about history than I do about, say, stellar mechanics.
Most have a vague notion that we fought the Russians and Japanese in the 1940s, after the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, which was right after Lincoln freed the slaves in 1932 or so which started the Great Depression. :-) :-)
Were we to take the gloves off and free the Israelis as well to do what needs to be done (bulldozers, bombs etc.) we'd win.
Fighting with both hands tied behind us and just butting with our forehead, is a very painful way to wage a war as important as this one and will frankly never lead to victory.
As another thread said, just imagine CNN was around to report on Peleliu or MacArthur in the Philipines. We probably would have had a negotiated peace with Japan in mid 1944, and would have let Europe burn and never gotten involved over there.

Well, the point is that was sixty years ago. We now have CNN and must appreciate that visual images often outweight thought. For example, during the actual movement to contact in Iraq, I believe the embedded reporter idea was clever. It gave the reporters a vested interest in the survival of the unit to which they were attached. Is that the right approach? The Clintons were and still are marvels at media manipulation. Hardly a role model pair, I often wonder if the the press was so guillable and about the neutrality of our free press. So they are a hostile factor, you have to figure out how to best manage their constant presence. The press has been known to eat its young. Howard Dean was their darling and fell from grace. Thus the challenge is how do you best use the media to fight this war?
DJ

True it's easy to come up a solution of hunting and destroying them wherever they are found. Take a proactive approach. "Get 'em before they get you."

But of course, we would want a lasting solution. Address the social and economic concerns of the "little people" That way, they can resist the calls of extremist agitators who are the real enemy or peace to join them. They capitalize on their plight and shift the blame on others for their sufering, hence, feeling they have nowhere to go, they join their bandwagon.

4 EYES---I don't tink anyone would disagree that the long term solution is to improve the quality of life for people. The challenge is how to do it? What do you suggest?
DJ

I'm no policy-maker but I feel the solution here is to address the socio-economic problems of these third world nations (the breeing ground for terrorists). Alleviate poverty and illiteracy. Stabilize their economies. Because extremists will stoke their hatred towards affluent nations, making them scapegoats where they take out their frustrations on.

As for the affluent nations, they must not be apathetic. 9/11 was a wake-up call meant to shake up people about their plight. They got the message through though not the kind we approve of. It's better that we prevent thingsd like these, rather than react to if after it happens.

Of course, it's easier said than done. I don't think anyone can come up with a quicker solution.

Eyes-- I agree with your bumper sticker idea what I am looking for is how best to do it. You speak, for example, of erasing illiteracy. Why don't start with that thought. How do you go about educating people ? Build schools, train teachers, textbooks.....what do you think?

Unfortunately it is not the ignorant and unfed who by and large become the terrorists. They stay and try their damnedst as always to be left alone.

It is the educated and the upper and middle classes who support terrorism and who commit it. Not one of the terrorists from 9/11 was from a poor household, they were all well-educated and most from wealthy families. They are ones with the leisure time on their hands to study these things and to listen to these Islamic heretics.

Education will only succeed if it is taken away from those who do it now. Look at what the Palestinians are teaching in their schools. Their maps have no Israel on them, their history books claim there never was a nation called Judah or Israel and that the land always belonged to the Arab Palestinians (which to me is hysterical since 1600 years ago these Palestinians spoke Aramaic or Hebrew and were all Christains or Jews, it was only after the Jihads of the 5th Century that they were forceably converted to Islam) They are re-writing history to make their children believe that the only good jew is a dead one. They even teach that "The Protocals of the Elders of Zion" is history and is a true depiction of Jewish plans for the world. Also gone is the ancient Islamic tolerance of Christains and Jews as "People of the Book"

The only education that will work to end terrorism is secular, without mention of religious dogma. Sometimes I think that if all religion disappeared tomorrow it would probably take all terrorism with it.