What US Foreign Policy strategy should be to contain radical Islam

How to contain radical Islam
The best global strategy for the US may be the one that won the Cold War
by Commander Philip Kapusta and Captain Donovan Campbell

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/07/27/how_to_contain_radical_islam/?page=1

In a word: containment.

radicalism because the only groups that offer them food, health care, and education are the radicals. Just like the Salvation Army here, people who are in great need will take in where they can get it -- and in too many countries that help comes with a heavy indoctrination of hate and violence.

Feed the poor Muslim people of the world a healthy diet of education, jobs, housing, fairness/respect, and moderate Islam and our radical Islam "problem" will all but go away.

While Id rather see a large peace corp, and a small army, some countries just don't want us there.

Maybe helping fund and supply foreign NGOs (that employ locals) could be a better approach. Don't know to be honest

:shrug:

It's all about funding -- International NGOs, local groups, etc. Give them money to build a school/grid/hospital with local labor -- get the people emotionally invested in the project -- they get jobs, education, services. Rinse and repeat.

Although containment may have worked effectively against other governments, I yet fail to see after reading the article how containment could effectively be used against religion and philosophy.

The author does not indicate any precise and relevant differences between the static, slow-to-react government of the U.S.S.R., and the fluid, non-location specific, decentralized organization of the world's major religions.

In fact, he merely reiterates that same cold-war policy and simply applies to the Muslim world, focusing on the Levant and the Mid East instead of the Warsaw Pact, yet leaving out the obvious impact of the largest population center of Muslims in the world-- the country of Indonesia and the surrounding regions within Oceania.

It can only be exposed as beneficial or not. The best bet to constrain radical ideology is to expose the detriments and educate about other paths. Like water. people will take the path of least resistance and try to seek equilibrium.
Either let them do it or help them do it and terrorism will just be a pimple on the butt of the world.

Containment works when you have a giant Warsaw Pact army funded by the Soviets in a general geographic region of the world. There is no analog amongst terrorists; they feed off of ideas and disillusionment (kind of like fascists do) which guns do fuck all to keep from spreading across borders.

All a containment policy would do is guarantee more pissed-off young Muslims start listening to the Wahabbi clowns spreading this militant shit.

Donchya just love these great strategic thinkers where everything turns out hunky-dory in their dreams? I particularly like their dismissal of the millions we killed in pursuing the "containment" of the Soviet Union.

Maybe, as an alternative, we could just butt-out.

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy.” - Gandhi

And you think that, since they own the world's oil supply, they will simply leave us alone, please. These people are the spiritual sisters of our own Xtians, which is to say, they are a virus that refuses to coexist with anyone. Yes, there are Muslims that want to coexist, but like most people in a religion, they either A) get mowed down by the faithful or B) shut up and agree with the faithful to keep power, just like their spiritual cousins in American Christianity do.

I must've missed the newsflash.

I suppose you think they get funded by the Tooth fairy...It is no secret that Oil Money funds these organizations, and that they do NOT want coexistence. It would be nice to think that if America just folded up into itself, everyone would play nice, but truth to tell, Ben Ladin style Islam (which is about as halal as a Virginia Ham) will not.

Or, the Falling Dominoes that got us into that other enterprise?

The U.S. helped radical Islamists rather than letting the Soviets gun them down 30 years ago.

And if we refused to support Israel in their oppression of the Palestinian people? I'd say that those two actions alone would greatly reduce Islamic extremism.

Let them kill all the Jews, right?

I despise Israel, but frankly, I have no illusions about what the Mullahs would do if they took control, kill everyone who does not "submit" to their version of islam, and that is why containment will not work.

Israel has the bomb. Everybody knows it. The Mullahs know it. I doubt the leaders of Iran are as fanatical as some of their followers in terms of dying for a cause. They like to send others in their place to do the dying for them, but they certainly haven't shown the propensity to put their own lives on the line for the religious beliefs they spout, which makes me think they're just using religion to maintain a grip on power. If they really are only interested in holding onto power, they won't invite a situation where Israel turns each and every one of them into piles of radioactive ash.

Israel can take care of itself without our help. And quite frankly, there probably wouldn't be so much anti-Israeli sentiment throughout the Islamic world if Israel didn't treat the Palestinians so badly. I don't expect Israel and its neighbors to live in a "kum-ba-ya" world, but I do think things would be much better.

Saying that we shouldn't automatically side with Israel and actively support it when it engages in blatant anti-Palestinian actions is NOT the same as saying "just let them kill all the Jews", or is it anti-Semitic as some people on this board like to charge.

You pay them off, bribe, buy them. Whatever - send money.

The rise of the religious insurgency was born in extreme poverty. Give 'em all shiny possessions to worry about.