[Chocoholic]

It means that you can't justify Israel (or the US or anyone) treating prisoners badly because other people are worse. If we're the "good guys" it is incumbent on us to follow the rules. The less we follow the rules the more justification "they" have not to. And even when they don't follow the rules, we do it because it is right.

We follow the rules, sans, a few recalcitrant acts by individual soldiers. “Because it is right” means nothing without education, leaders who teach tolerance and religious objectivity and prevent the manipulation of religion for political or other means or ends.

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Go ahead and read those, I'll be waiting.

You’re kidding right? About.com – now there’s a scholarly source, LOL! The Statesman, what is that, a Texas newspaper? Suite101.com, if you bothered to check the contributors’ credentials I’m sure you would have been embarrassed. I’m almost embarrassed for you… Do you like 'The Atlantic' http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs.../06/brooks.htm

I’ll say it again, until you educate these young Muslim men, they’ll remain susceptible and receptive to a spurious version of Islamic nationalism taught and based upon nonsense promised to them by the Taliban et al. Therefore, our actions will mean bupkis, without first teaching them religious tolerance and educating them beyond the current level. If not; nothing changes and the cycle continues. In the very least, we should expect this from their leaders.

Why would that even come into your mind when discussing it?

Because, just last week a kid viciously stabbed a Muslim cab driver in NYC for no reason other than he was Muslim. It’s obvious to me that nutjobs know no bounds or borders. And the only reason I brought it up is due to the contentious, emotional hot button that discussion has evoked – right up to Sen Harry Reid and the POTUS.

Why do you care what the other side says? This shouldn't be some geographic pissing match (even though it is all too often.) And we've already acknowledged they're crazy, so your best bet is to convince the non-crazy people about how crazy the extremists are.

Agreed, it shouldn’t be a pissing match. I wanted you to clarify your position, and now you’ve done so. Thanks.

If you compromise your values for the terrorists, you lose. That's how it works. Their goal is to inspire terror, right? If you start clamoring about how you don't know if you can trust Muslims now, you only prove their point about the West wanting to destroy them.

I understand, and I agree. However, that doesn’t mean you capitulate to demands for fear of reprisal and threats of discrimination. In this country, we have the principle of separation of church and state; therefore, we don’t place footbaths in our public universities, prayer rooms in our middle schools, allow drivers licenses’ with photos of burqa-covered women. Yet with each of these, CAIR threatened legal action.

We keep thinking that if we bomb (or shoot, or whatever) them we'll change their minds or something and we don't realize that for every civilian we kill, and we cannot help but kill some, we create enemies of their whole families, friends, neighbors.

Once again, we agree. And those families grow up, and new generations are born and they’re taught who their enemies are and the cycle continues.
BTW thanks for that font tip.