March 5, 2008 - Sometimes I can go to Home Depot and just walk up and down the aisles looking at everyone, dreaming up ideas of what I want to do next to my house. The problem is the next thing I do is start adding up how much that project will cost me, and then I walk to the next aisle and try to dream up a new project. So I had a few things to return to Home Depot today that I didn't use for my surround speaker project. These items were purchased about a year ago, but they're still stocked at Home Depot, and I didn't need them, so I got a store credit. Store credit at Home Depot is dangerous for me because I always end up spending it, plus some extra. Today I was somewhat frugal with my purchases. I got a new faucet to replace a broken one outside. This is the 4th one I've had to replace because of a leak. At least the new ones I am putting in are not leaking. I also picked up a rug to replace the one that my dogs chewed up, and a small can of white paint to paint over the places around the house that the dogs have chewed on the walls. They haven't done any chewing for months now, so I figure since they're out of their "chewing on the house" phase, it's time to clean up their mess. Back to my presidential issues discussion. Today's topic is "the war on terror". I think I have a very different outlook on "terrorism" than most people. I don't see a hoard of "radical Islamists" chomping at the bit to tear down democracy and capitalism. I see a group of people who are largely uneducated due to the exclusive and divisive policies of their countries. I see these same people being kept down for generation after generation, and passing down family stories about what someone did to their ancestors. I see these same people being stirred into a fervor by their power hungry leaders, willing to do anything they can to exact revenge on a false enemy. These people are tired of being taken advantage of, tired of hearing about how wonderful everyone elses lives are great, and realizing that they are being oppressed. They do not read the Koran on their own and then the next day say "It's time to go kill some Americans". They are goaded into the role of suicide bomber by being convinced that it is the only path to heaven, by destroying as many people that they can. Ok, maybe some of that is similar to popular theory, but I think my big difference is in how we "correct" this. I don't think going and attacking "the enemy" is the solution. This is not an army of a government we are going after, it is uneducated citizens that have formed pockets of militias. We need to provide education that teaches these people how they can make positive contributions to society, and show them that their destructive ways will only escalate the violence. If the people are educated to make rational decisions rather than being disillusioned by their leaders, the violence will go away on its own. The only reason there is violence is because the very few militant leaders have amassed huge armies of believers. These same leaders are not actually going to go out and do any damage. They sit back and collect all the kick-backs, reap the benefits of their rule and intimidation, and rely on the uneducated folks to do all the tough work. Without these uneducated people at their beckoning, terrorism will defeat itself. Instead, here we are, throwing more fuel on the fire in Iraq and Afghanistan. The terrorists and future terrorists see American soldiers breaking down doors of their neighbors, flying helicopters and planes overhead, occupying their homes, shooting their family members, and so on. This just gives the terrorist leaders more ammunition to stoke the flames of their masses, bringing more violence. Unfortunately, what sort of strategy is there for retracting our occupation in these countries without endangering their general population of citizens who just want to live ordinary lives? I think we've gotten ourselves into a situation that has no move. We are at a stalemate. If we retreat, we risk letting the terrorist cells fight for absolute control over their territories. If we stay, we continue to fuel the anger of the citizens, pushing them towards becoming terrorists themselves. We need to maintain our presence militarily, while at the same time greatly ramp up our efforts to provide basic education and humanitarian aid. And I think we can tie our immigration plan into this as well. We should be able to identify children and young adults who have not been pulled into the terrorist cells yet, bring them to our country, educate them, and then in a few years send them back to their homeland. What a crazy situation we have here.