Perspective without Pictures

[tw]

Extremists are driven by their emotions; not by logical thought. That defines a person of low intelligence. But an extremist movement becomes dangerous when it can recruit moderates - where most intelligent people reside. How does an extremist recruit moderates? Create instability. Get adversarial extremists to create emotion. Emotion is the enemy of logical thought. History is so full of extremists who became powerful or who created great destruction simply by creating such instability as to make a moderate's position untenable.

The emotional could not read through that long dry paragraph. But the logical have long since learned those boring concepts. Can you deal with current news logically or do you seek an emotional response.

There is an alliance between all extremists - even when those different extremists are enemies. They both use their extremist adversary to recruit moderates. That has happened in Israel. If we were smart, we would have been empowering moderates at the expense of those extremists. But we didn't. Instead we have this new president who tacitly supports extremists by undermining moderates. Are we paying for those mistakes?

We don't know who created today's news, but targets of Middle East extremists have finally and successfully been attacked. Where else in the world have we created so many emotionally distressed people by advocating the elimination of their basic human rights? For moderates, today, the day of the Camp David Accord should have been a celebration. To extremists such a bin Laden and Sharon, today's event celebrates another destruction of moderate positions. Extremist on all sides profit from today's news.

Previous terrorist attempts were classic examples of mental midgets. One returns to a truck rental center to reclaim his deposit. Another panics and sweats while crossing into WA using the wrong route during December. Why can so many do it right so often?

Four planes were hijacked. Other attempts may have been aborted. That means multiple hijackers on each plane including a pilot familiar to 757/767 cockpits. Multiple weapons. The hijackers had to disable or kill the flight crew AND to fly the 757/767. Hijacking every plane without problem required special training and planning. Weapons had to be smuggled through three airports without detection - again extensive training and planning. Flights chosen to be in the right place at 9:00 AM. All this performed without using electronic communication, using many people, and no leaks.

It is not just advance training and intelligence that makes this possible. Emotion in intelligent minds makes each participant that much more dedicated, that less likely to leak plans, and that more likely to succeed.

So what is this emotion that drives moderates to execute extremist plans? What is this emotion that makes intelligent people do something so absurd? What is this emotion that made success so likely? Clearly moderates have been so wronged as to attack their most obvious enemy. Why did we become the enemy of moderates?

Would these logical thinking people been so emotionally involved three years ago? No. In the Middle East, America has gone from being an honest broker to - well even among American friends in Egypt, they are shocked by the act but then say America is getting what their attitude deserves. Yes, our attitude has changed.

Our leadership cannot see the bigger picture or even provide leadership. A leader would have returned to Washington rather than fly from rabbit hole to rabbit hole, indecisive, until suddenly while safely in Nebraska, he realized he was not being presidential. This is a decisive leader? No. This is also the leadership that drives moderates to support extremist positions. This is a leader who has cooled US relations with almost every nation while encouraging or empowering Middle East extremists.

Extremists are now extremely dangerous because we have chosen to side against moderates. Instead of supporting a moderate such as Arafat, we have instead chosen to support an extremist and proven genocidal masochist - Ariel Sharon. We support a man who single handedly drove the world closest to nuclear war. By supporting extremists - Sharon - we have empowered the extremist factions of Islamic Jahed, Hesbolla and Hamas to recruit more moderates. We have destroyed any moderate support among from great Rabin's Israeli suppporter. We have played right into the hands of instability - and have done this mostly in the past year.

Today's news may have been created by other geographical extremists. But we must decide up front to think logically or empower extremists - think emotionally.

Is Sharon responsible? Just like he is not responsible for the murder of Rabin. His history: creates instability, forces others to suffer, plays on those emotions, and profits from its effects. He has successfully achieved head of nation by such tactics. He has successfully destroyed the Oslo Accords as well as UN Resolution 242 (which even many American Jews refuse to acknowledge).

Is Yassar Arafat the source of such problems. Of course not. We have conveniently driven his people into the arms of extremists. We have struck another dagger into the heart of a great man - Rabin. Now we are so emotional as to seek revenge rather than understand how we got here. We got here because we openly endorsed the slow massacre of an Arab people. We even walked out of a conference that defined Isreal's right wing extremists as racists - which is Ariel Sharon.

We should not be pushing moderates to unite with extremists. But that requires leadership with intelligence. Instead even the US has a leader elected, in part, by religous extremists. We have a leader that flys around the country like a scared, befuddled rabbit.

Today's events will be repeated if we continue to attack all others in the Middle East and to support right wing, extremist, "we want the entire West Bank and screw UN242" Israelis. Clinton had the intelligence to distance himself from Sharon. Bush has told all extremists that we will support right wing, anti-humanity extremists and their proven genocidal masochist: Sharon.