Whether you are anti-war, pro-war, liberal or conservative, you are the enemy of Islamic fundamentalists. As a liberal, your lifestyle is repugnant to these people. As a conservative, your choice of religion, if not fundamental Islam, is the reason why they should be your masters. As a capitalist, your concern with material items and with making life easier and more convenient for others is abhorrent as being too focused on materialism. As a communist, your belief in people working for the common good is abhorrent, unless that good is narrowly defined as fundamental Islam.
There will always be alternative world views. DocBrain's world view is that he should be master of all, but, as of yet, DocBrain has only 7 followers: one dog, one cat, and five fish.
The goal is victory, but how do you achieve it? The modern way of dialog, commerce, and social interaction has not been successful in converting most of the non-Islamic world to Islam.
When DocBrain looks at the Arab-Muslim world, he sees: abject poverty of the masses; greed of the obscenely rich; corruption of the military; lack of due process in the courts; social backwardness where the poor, women, children and homosexuals have no rights; a past-directed society; no innovation in health care, technology or science; filtered knowledge; repression in the arts and literature; little effort in preventive health; and vitriol directed against those who would lead or push in the corection of these shortcomings. Those who support the Islamic approach point to: family closeness; chastity; the feeling of belonging that comes from religious conformity; a clear understanding of good and evil; and a celebration of the afterlife over the suffering of mortality. All of these are available outside of Islam for any who wish to avail themselves of it...what is not available outside of fundamental Islam is the lack of choice. DocBrain's primary problem with fundamental Islam is that it flies in the face of personal ethics. When all is determined for you, you have no freedom to be good, only obedient. Fundamental Islam is anti-humanity, anti-freedom, anti-diversity, and violent. In using terror to attempt to alter the world, they have reverted to the lowest form of influence, that of the schoolyard bully, the street thug, the wife-beater, you get the picture.
DocBrain cannot understand why people would not want to stand up and fight against this aberrancy of thought and action. The fear of dissing those who practice Islam and are part of the modern world is rooted in a distortion of the concept of embracing diversity and not being biased or racist. Fundamentalist Islam has co-opted the nationalistic spirit of citizens of the Middle East and has acted as their only hope for respect and power on the world stage. This power needs to be replaced with a credible alternative, such as democracies. Caving in to the enemy is not an option. Destroying the enemy is not enough. We must provide a source of pride and power for the Arab-Muslims that is consistent with a multicultural and multireligious world view; one that respects other religions and cultures; one that embraces its neighbors; one that has the power to be a helpful and strong friend on the world stage. This can only come from re-education over years and retooling of their social fabric.
DocBrain sees no other viable option. One should not pick a fight, but should never back down when the stakes are high out of fear. DocBrain is appalled by the lack of insight of many Americans, as recently demonstrated in Connecticut.
There is no common ground with this enemy. Our society is based upon our "rights". Their society is based upon their "obedience". We just want to do our thing and be left alone. They want to be our masters. They have co-opted the good citizens of the Middle East. We must win and provide them with a better alternative for self-respect.
