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February 23, 2006
The clashing of civilizations is nothing new
Islam and the West have been at war on and off for the last 1400 or so years. We've been a bit distracted by the lull in hostilities between the end of WW I and the September 11, 2001, but this is a real conflict, not just a product of the Bush administration.
The Philadelphia Inquirer has review of a few recent books on this long conflict. A choice quote:
Islam, we're often reminded these days, means "submission" in Arabic. Enlightenment, we should equally remember, means replacing half-baked notions and myths with facts.
I love when a conflict can be solved peacefully, even more so when a win-win solution can be found. But sometimes your enemies don't want to negotiate, sometimes they want to destroy everything about you that you like about yourself. Then you have to use force. Sometimes there is no substitute for killing your enemies.
Remember my article about unemployment and terrorism? One thing that the Europeans should consider is cutting their benefits for non-citizens. Forced to integrate into society to make a living, they'd be more likely to learn the language of their hosts. The might pick up a bit of their values, and certainly would help with assimilation, If you need to add some carrot to the end of this, deport non-citizens who remain long term unemployed.
Posted by OneEyedMan at February 23, 2006 3:39 PM
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