>> Wouldn't it be easy for them [USA] to cultivate the
>>Arab nations they have hitherto antagonised
speaking with no expertise at all i have to say, first,
that it certainly would NOT be easy . . . it might be
possible, in the long term, but it would be a slow,
expesnive, and multiply painful process of conversion
-- though in the longest run it probably would cost us
less [in lives and even in dollars] than star shields
and stealth bombers . . . and second, that any such
conversion would be rejected by many as cultural
imperialism and ethnic deracination
BTW, i'm not sure that when one sees one person
brutally beating another person one's own moral
obligation extends no further than talking . . . there
surely are times--in ANY moral reckoning--when
physical inervention is called for
mike
