OK, Hillary_Step - you seem to have a real pantie-wad about my level of education. Obviously, if I do not agree with you, then I must be uneducated. Lets analyze some of your last personalized attack (in which I am casually called an idiot): "I did not say the West is the ROOT of the problem, we all know that RELIGION is the root of the problem. What I have said, repeatedly I might add, is the the evidence is quite plain that the invasion of Iraq has been responsible for the growth of Islamic terrorism in the Middle East and its export around the world can be laid at the feet of the invading forces." "If you have evidence to the contrary, I would be very interested in seeing it."
"Please read my posts carefully before responding to them James, then you would not make such an idiot of yourself when you reply to them."
HS I have highlighted four arguments in red. I respond as follows: a. we all know Religion is the root of the problem. I am not so sure that we all "know" that, nor that Religion {in general, as implied here} is at all such a thing. I stated that radical Islam is the root of the problem, and its radical roots go back literally hundreds of years. Other viewpoints might argue that there are also political factors, economic factors, dissonance with Israel and its right to exist, and so on. My argument is that radical Islam and its crazed leadership is the root cause. And yours is that "Religion" is the root of the problem? All religion, including the Witnesses, Methodists, Mormons, Catholics, Quakers??? Or, did you want to say radical Islam, but didn't want to be quite that politically incorrect? b. the evidence is quite plain that the invasion of Iraq has been responsible for the growth of Islamic terrorism in the Middle East Well, if we look all through your post, we are not treated to any such statement of evidence. In fact, by far the most damaging terror attacks in the U.S. were done before the Iraq war, as a clear point of evidence. c. the export of global terrorism can be laid at the feet of the invading forces - If you have evidence to the contrary, I would like to see it... This is intellectual dishonesty of argument in the extreme. You are making your own statement of opinion, then expecting me to go to the trouble of disproving it - right after you make a statement of "all evidence shows..." without quoting such evidence yourself. Look at statement B - no evidence presented. Now, you contradict yourself by saying that first, "Religion is the root of the problem"...then, follow that with "export...can be laid at the feet of the invading forces". So which is it - religion or the invaders? There is also a chronology problem. Is it possible that you kind of forgot the basement bombing of the WTC, followed by the aircraft attacks, followed by the anthrax scare, the Maxwell Smart-like shoe bomb, all pre-Iraq invasion? Sure the terrorists are trying to fight back - that's what your enemy always does in time of war. It is our job to defeat him in detail, preferably in a place of our own choosing. d. "then you would not make such an idiot of yourself when you reply to them". I am rather new here on this forum, but I did read and agree to the wise advise to avoid making personalized slurs in the course of interesting debate topics. As I am obviously a minority thinker here, and of the opposite opinion of the founder, I have generally been careful to keep my word in that area. However, if I were to do so, it does occur that perhaps "idiot" might not be the most expressive and useful mental terminology. There are also available, of course, moron, cretin, or imbecile...I understand that the French (who apparantly know a lot about such things) at one time had a classification system of such terms relating them to the IQ of the subject and his deficiency to that of the normal public. I must register a slight offense that you did not make a more careful choice of a suitable derisive term. I regret the expenditure of yet one more of my precious thread replies as I approach commencement. I am hoarding them like a miser so as to be able say something nice on #1000 - but after all, they are mine to use as I see fit, aren't they? James (of the at least I was dead right about 607BCE and John Karr class).