Quote Originally Posted by jcustis View Post
Bingo!!!

That speaks to the question I have carried for a long time, which wonders whether we are investing enough resources to strengthen those moderate voices. If they are more important than a FID actor or a kinetic drone, what are we doing to demonstrate that importance?
I think this is the key to ultimately quelling the violence in these sectarian conflicts. However, I don't think "we" should or can empower them. How much money does it take? How much money did Martin Luther King need to start a movement? Different issue, but I don't think credible voices need a lot of money. We're not talking about buying air time and putting out propaganda that will fall flat to begin with, especially if the audience thinks we support it.

We can't resolve their religious conflict anymore than we can mandate a peace between Israel and Palestine. We may be able to help mitigate it, and we can certainly target the actors that threaten us, but I suspect this will be a long fight.

I recall someone else who shared Bob's secular view and that was Paul Wolfowitz (or witless). If you recall prior to invading Iraq he stated there was no ethnic conflict, so somehow this key advisor and architect of the war seemed to forget the recent history (post DESERT STORM) uprisings of the Kurds and Shia. What he saw in Baghdad is Saddam imposing a relative peace between the different ethnic/religious groups just like Tito maintained an imposed peace by recognizing the Muslims as a separate group, which incised the Serbs and they took revenge (religious conflict) when presented with the opportunity.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...se-report.html

Religious conflict in global rise - report

Violence and discrimination against religious groups by governments and rival faiths have reached new highs in all regions of the world except the Americas, according to a new report by the Pew Research Centre.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/curr_war.htm

Religiously-based civil unrest and warfare

The role of religion in civil unrest and war:

Often, the media does not identify the precise causes of some of the conflicts around the world. Clashes are frequently described as being ethnic in origin, even though religion may have been a main cause.

The true causes of unrest are sometimes difficult to determine. Frequently, there are a mixture of political alliances, economic differences, ethnic feuds, religious differences, and others:
I think they're right, most conflicts are due to a variety of issues, but the predominate issue/identity factor frequently is religion. This has nothing to do with steak and sizzle. That is simply an attempt to sound superior, the analogy is void of any intellectual rigor. You can't wish religion away by calling it sizzle.

Is governance/government going to be part of the solution ultimately? Most certainly, there won't be a solution without it, but good governance alone won't be enough, credible religious leaders will have to work with the government as part of civil-society to convince the different religious groups to stop fighting. Much easier said than done.