[otisotisotis]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

Dont be naive enough to think that maybe they will start to "like" us. Our image is a rich country while the vast majority of people there are poor. Class envy, which is a key democratic tool by the way, will never allow the US to be "popular" there not to mention that kids recruited into terrorism are generally the ones that have few other appealing options. They are easily led astray because of the lack of opportunity that oppressive govts in the region create for their people. It is how they stay in power. If you are leading a country over there it is much easier to simply blame a far away, wealthy nation for your troubles than actually indulging in solutions. The people in power want to stay there. It is far easier to do so with an oppressed population. Not to mention that despite the idea here that somehow the region is hoping to settle the Palestine issue with a 2 state solution, the vast majority of the powers that be over there continue to support the one state option, which is Israel goes into the ocean. I know you understand this stuff but we have to understand that there is pretty much nothing that we can do outside of bombing Israel ourself that will make us popular there. Not to mention that the terror groups have plenty of paid professional terrorists to carry out their plans. The dumb kids that they get to blow themselves up are seen as expendable. Remember that Hamas was voted into power there.

Wow, you could apply some of this to most American inner cities...maybe we should worry more about that than our 'appearance' to the rest of the world?