Is this a reasonable fear?

[LittleWyvern]

I can't believe I just read that.

Edited March 28, 2014 by LittleWyvern

[HoosierGuy]

The Ka'ba or Mecca is not the cause of extremism in Islam: it is ignorance and illiteracy.

More like greed, Texas and Wall-street greed. The extremism comes from Saudi Arabia. We should have dealt with the whole country harshly after 9/11 but Saudi Arabia is big oil and has too many connections with that supposedly great state of Texas and big businesses in the U.S. One of the most disgusting things I ever saw was the second Bush holding hands with that Saudi king. It goes to show U.S. businesses were OK with 9/11 and the murder of innocent Americans as long as their precious oil businesses were not harmed.

You want to destroy the Ka'ba? Pick it up and transport it to Iran. They didn't attack us. Then use all or military to remove Saudi Arabia from the maps. Then give the land that was known as Saudi Arabia to Israel or transport all the homeless Kurds and make it a new Kurdish country.

[mnn727]

Hey, leave Texas out of this, a couple of bad apples don't spoil the entire state.

[Just_A_Guy]

I can't believe I just read that.

[My web filter won't let your image come through, so apologies if I'm missing something.]

Let me reiterate that I don't support such an approach. But I think there's more than a grain of truth to the reasoning. The whole point of war, is that you can (theoretically) control people's behavior by making them fear what will happen to themselves or the people/things they love if they don't acquiesce to your position. It's cynical, and depressing, and evil. It's also the way the world works, unfortunately.

Going back to your Salt Lake Temple analogy: You couldn't destroy Mormonism by destroying the Salt Lake Temple. But could you change particular aspects of it by making the Mormons think you are willing to destroy (or, say, confiscate) it? I mean, lots of secularists and progressive Mormons think that that's exactly what happened with Edmunds-Tucker, Reynolds, and the Manifesto.

Edited March 28, 2014 by Just_A_Guy

[Just_A_Guy]

One of the most disgusting things I ever saw was the second Bush holding hands with that Saudi king.

Hey--we don't need your homophobia here, sir!

[HoosierGuy]

Hey--we don't need your homophobia here, sir!

My "hand holding" statement was not anti-gay. It was anti holding hands with a king of a ruthless country. If two gay men or women want to hold hands, I don't care. But a president of the U.S. holding hands/making nice to the bad kingdom of Saudi Arabia, that is horrible.

Edited March 28, 2014 by HoosierGuy

[Guest]

HoosierGuy and JaG, sit on the couch and hold hands until you've made up.

[Just_A_Guy]

My "hand holding" statement was not anti-gay. It was anti holding hands with a king of a ruthless country. If to gay men or women want to hold hands, I don't care. But a president of the U.S. holding hands/making nice to the bad kingdom of Saudi Arabia, that is horrible.

I know, HG; I was just being silly. Bush displayed spectacularly bad judgment in his assessments of both King Abdullah and Vladimir Putin.