"no_spam_here" wrote in message
om...

Frank
I don't think that words will fight the muslim terrorists to an end
they only understand terror and the only way to stop them is to send
them to their god which is NOT my God. More Christian broadcasting to
Africa will have a chance to help but not until the muslim terrorist
are gone.

Few Muslims are terrorists. But a great many of them are isolated and
illiterate.

I think there is great value in broadcasting the Western, and American,
point of view to them. They likely don't personally know any Westerners.
Their opinions of us are heavily influenced by a controlled media. I think
there is great value in showing that Westerners are all sorts of people, but
generally a decent sort. And there is great value in showing that their
controlled media is frequently deceptive and dishonest. It's not all that
different than the Cold War, in which the BBC and Radio Liberty came to be
seen as more honest and reliable than the local media. Open societies have
a huge propaganda advantage over closed societies, and we must take
advantage of it.

Our pursuit of the hard core terrorists will drive them deeper into the
isolated parts of the third world. If all these people know about
Westerners is the lies and misrepresentations they've heard, they will
consider the terrorists heroes. The sort of heroes a young man with nothing
to do and plenty to prove might join up with.

On the other hand, if we can manage to do a good job presenting our side,
the locals will be more skeptical of the extremists. They might not give
them assistance, maybe even turn in the terrorists. Those same young men,
better informed, might look at the terrorists as a bunch of crazy old men.

Frank Dresser