Quote Originally Posted by Pete View Post
A lot of the inspiration for terrorism is a sense of existential blues and trying to find someone or something to blame for them. As long as the U.S. is one of the most powerful countries in the world people will continue to blame us no matter what we do. If we as the U.S. fail to take action against unjust governments we're to blame; if we take action against them we're intervening in another nation's affairs.

In addition to that is a loud-mouth intellegensia around the world which for the most part has never had the albatross of having had to be responsible for accomplishing anything. Put in another way, they're the college professors and New York intellectuals who don't have the leadership to make a squad of troops clean up a latrine. However, their lack of experience has never stopped them from having opinions or saying that this or that should have been done.
Blame shifting is indeed a core human trait. I saw this in dealing with drug users in court. This is also a smart, powerful aspect of AQ's UW campaign, in essence "you cannot achieve the type of governance you deserve here at home until you break the moral/political influence of the West/US over your 'apostate' government". This strikes a powerful human cord, "yes our government has become apostate, but it is because they have been corrupted by the morality and wealth of the West" (so it is the West's fault, go attack the west, or contribute funds to those who promise to end this influence, etc). Some hear this, and think that ending Western influence is enough, others think that their corrupted government must go as well. There is a dozen ways to process this message and rationalize the need to act out illegally. (Plus, there are no effective legal venues for acting out so the populaces only choices are "endure" or "revolt.")

So a HIGH VALUE TARGET for the US is the widely held perception that our culture has a morally corrupting influence on the people and governments of the Middle East, and that our government manipulates/corrupts the governments with wealth, power and inappropriate meddling. Some places there is more reality to that then others, but it is the perception that matters. The U.S. has a golden opportunity during this current unrest to Engage THAT HIGH VALUE TARGET. I think the President's speech a couple nights ago re. Egypt was on target. We need to do more in that regard, but it is more symbolic and messaging, and backroom carrot and sticks discussions than anything else.

We cannot target and destroy "Islamist Ideology,"
We cannot target and destroy "corruption."
We cannot target and destroy "poverty."

But we can target and engage the perception that these things are our fault. This requires us to makes changes in ourselves rather than in others, and to admit a degree of liability for the political unrest in the region. Such admissions are the first part of a 12-step program for a reason. Healing cannot begin until acceptance of responsibility for ones actions occurs.