Originally posted by BP:
Originally posted by BP:
the muslim community in general was moving towards a less conservative and less extremist position before 9/11 and iraq....



...than it is now.



Forgot to address this; I still disagree with this assessment. Radical Islam has been constantly progressing foward since the 70's and has seen few if any contractions in it's influence or it's ranks of followers. Now if you said blatant state-sponsored extremism, I would agree, since most Islamic political apparatuses have figured out this is pretty much a one-way ticket into getting their clocks cleaned out by the West sooner or later. The way the governments get around it though is by turning a blind eye to these radical organizations in their midst, forking support to them through back-channels that cannot easily be identified or tracked, all the while denouncing them on any UN podium they can find just to make us feel "warm and cozy" about the "progress" they are making.

These people and governments may be simple compared to our own and possess one-track minds in some ways, but they aren't stupid. They know how to work the fools at the UN and they know how to position themselves to the media. Some of the spin Hamas and the PLO has pulled over the years in the media should have PR hacks in corporate American taking notes...

I always liked the line in "The Usual Suspects" that Kevin Spacey uttered:

"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist."

If you are buying into the presumption that things were "all quiet on the Islamic extremists front" before Bush got into office, you are beginning to buy into this con. Mention to a Chechen how Islamic radicals were few and far between in the '90s and watch the expression on their face........

JaTo e-Tough Guy Missouri City, TX 99 Contour SVT #143/2760 00 Corvette Coupe