Senator Kerry pushes US-Muslim nation exchanges

Source: AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Senator John Kerry appealed Tuesday for cementing US ties with the Muslim world with a two-way exchange of professionals like teachers, city planners, and public health workers.

Kerry, who chairs the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced a bill calling for a three-year pilot program to draw such workers from 4-7 Muslim-majority countries to be picked by the US State Department.

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Fellows would be 21-40 years old and could also come from civil society, including journalists, leaders of religious-based organizations, or employees of nonprofit organizations, Kerry's office said in a statement.

Kerry said he was modeling his plan on the academic exchanges pioneered by the late US senator William Fullbright after World War II




Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100803/pl_afp/uspoliticsdiplomacyexchangeislam_20100803154523

:sarcasm:





K&R for politicians with functioning brains like Kerry.

;-)

unfortunately so, for us, for this country and the world.

Or even after the Presidency was stolen from him in '04.

I kept waiting for the carrot but all I saw was a stick. (Maybe a shtick) I giant stick with full motion graphics on every station. Army generals and Defense ministers shaking that stick. And of course "shock and awe".

Increasing the war effort in Afghanistan was a mistake, but Rahm and Obama think they needed it politically. In reality it makes America less safe the longer we create new enemies. The way to reverse that is to actually try and make friends, connections. Its a longer tactic but much more sustainable in the long run.

Oh yeah, and a lot of good men women and children don't get their lives snuffed out violently.

So it made sense. Esp. since a lot of the exchanges were academic. Some single state university systems by themselves have exchange programs with Muslim countries larger than the Fullbright program ever was.

I've known dozens of people from Muslim-majority countries, and been around scores of them. I've known a dozen or so people who have gone to Muslim-majority countries. That's without esp. trying.

Kerry's program is redundant. Sounds good. A nice way of having government financing to bring people here and send them there. But still redundant.

I knew Russians here on exchange programs during Soviet times. After realizing that what they believed was wrong, it made a difference in their attitudes--at least their private attitudes--after they went back. The same is true for Muslims I've known here, mostly. I've also known Muslims here whose reaction was shock: The US was so immoral, ungodly, impious, that their attitude to the US had a sharp downturn.

Qutb back in the '40s, IIRC, drew precisely this conclusion. Now, the late '40s and the early '50s were not exactly known for the amount of stealing, sexual promiscuity, and women's liberation.

...LOVE President...'er, I mean, Senator...Kerry ! :7