I think we should ask 'the terrorists' what it is they want from us.

[mopaul]

hey mr. terrorist, mrs. suicide bomber, what is it exactly that you want from the united states of america? just spell it out for us, and maybe we can work something out huh?

just tell us why it is, that you are beheading westerners and why you hate us basically. maybe we could meet somewhere and talk things over? or a phone call maybe? a letter? maybe we can come to some sort of truce/agreement?

tell us, why you hate us? i think i already know, but maybe you should tell us again, cause we americans need to be told things repeatedly before it sinks into our skulls.

can we talk?

[Q]

1. They have already told us many times...

...they want the US military off their soil and to take our greedy hands off their resources.

[mikehiggins]

2. Some will, some won't

Certainly, folks who want us to convert and see all non-Islamics as satanic dogs who should be ground into the dust don't offer many areas for civilised agreement.

Keep in mind there are still IRA folks out there fighting the Brits after a century of rebellion AND the achievement of most of the nationalists original goals.

The "can't we just talk it over" folks tend NOT to be fanatics and therefore sometimes find it difficult to "grok" the fanatic mindset.

We can probably win over the vast majority of Iraqi's, for example, by getting the damn water running and the electricity working, and maybe getting their people jobs instead of importing workers from out-country because they'll work cheaper.

The guys who want us dead because we aren't Muslims are another story. We really can't fault our soldiers for not being able to differentiate between the moderate firing an RPG at them as opposed to a fanatic. What we should be doing is stiffing the desk clerk and sneaking out the back door as fast as we can. Maybe we can print up 200 billion in hundreds and scatter the cash from our planes as we cut and run. That'll distract everybody.

Ah, its too damn early to be thinking.

[reprehensor]

3. Clearly, we have too much Freedom®.

We have way too much Freedom®. They hate that, see.

[demnan]

4. For one,

they want us to stop bankrolling Israel. For another, they want us out of Iraq.

[napi21]

5. One more thing. They want westerners out of their land!

They just want to be left alone, and I don't know why we won't do that!

[hansolsen]

6. They want the same thing you and I want - fairness and equity. N/T