Quote Originally Posted by Cliff View Post
Bob-

You make my point for me.

Globalization means that people everywhere know more about other people. So the folks who are in dire economic straights KNOW that they are there... and once most people know that they don't think it's fair anymore, because they see that the Jones (or the next tribe, next country, other ethnic group, etc.) have more than they do.

This is why economic issues will become increasingly important- like you said, it is hope! As long as you have "hope" in the form of increased wealth through your life and better position for your kids, you can be placated because you see yourself as moving up the ladder. You can picture yourself in the fat cat's place, if only you work harder. If you suddenly lose that opportunity... well then we have a problem.

Once you've given people a taste of this, you can't really take it away... especially if their neighbors have opportunity!!

V/R,

Cliff
Cliff,

You may (or may not) be surprised to learn that those who live in abject poverty in so many places around the globe cannot empathize with the wealth of America any more than Americans can empathise with their poverty. Somethings are beyond comprehension.

I got my first dose of this as a young Captain standing in the Saudi desert attempting to describe my home in SW Oregon to the Egyptian soldiers and officers I worked with. Even when I finally got a tourist brochure and showed them pictures of the coast, the forests, the farms, Crater Lake, etc their eyes went wide with wonder, but they still could not truly comprehend something so far from the only reality they had ever known.

Fast forward to today. The size of bounties placed on HVTs in the Southern Philippines was (and likely is) a big problem. The amounts were too large. Tell someone you will pay them $6 Million for a guy and they don't get it. Tell them you'll pay them $6,000 and suddenly you have their attention. Like an inverse scene from Austin Powers. The first amount is too large to comprehend, the second is wealth beyond belief, but within understanding. Heck, we'd probably have rounded up all the AQ senior leaders world wide long ago if we had reduced the largest reward to about $25,000 for bin Ladin. It's not like we are attempting to lure western bounty hunters to go after them.

But that too points out how we have hindered our own efforts by not being able to epathize with the affected populaces where the base of support for such movements exists. Much smaller rewards and DA raids on senior leaders in Pakistan would have likely been seen as quite reasonable by the Pashtun populace that harbored them.

Instead we created this elaborate and intrusive construct that takes us farther from the prize every day. Crazy.