Words of Wisdom?

From alt.books.tom-clancy

Why does anyone think that this terrorist war has so much to do with religion?

Bin Laden wants to be the new Mohammed, which would give him control of a
formless nation of 1.5 BILLION citizens, and the power that would come with it.
His objective is political, not religious. He wants to be the biggest kahuna
around. A lot of people think that way. Some are politicians. The rest are
madmen. The two groupings overlap

Wherever the Prophet Mohammed is now, he is probably displeased that the
religion he founded on sound and admirable principles is being perverted, not
unlike Christianity by the crazies in Northern Ireland. in Catholicism we call
this blasphemy.

Religion rarely causes war. Rather, it defines the respective teams in wars
which are always about economics, one of the few facts that Karl Marx got
right. Anyone on the NG who gets numerous porn spams on the 'Net will
understand that people will do damned near anything for money. Even very
uncomfortable things

The average Muslim wants the same things that the average Christian or Buddhist
wants: a nice house, an steady job, and a better life for his kids—this is
what the polling date in Iraq shows rather explicitly. Our newsies do not
report this, of course.

If there is anything America has demonstrated to the world it is that all
people are pretty much the same. We have every culture in the world represented
here. Bring them here and the first generation works at menial entry-level jobs
and tries to get its kids educated. The kids become doctors and lawyers, and
their kids run for Congress. Along the way we also get some decent baseball
players. During World War I the Army, which is a very progressive institution,
tested its draftees and proved that Blacks were smarter than Jews. (This may be
why people declare that the SAT and other mass tests are biased, by the way.
Blacks spoke English Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe did not.) Now, today
I doubt that anybody would be so bold as to suggest that any group is smarter
than Jews. What makes people succeed are strong families and respect for
education. The Jews had and still have these advantages. I hope I'm not going
too fast for anyone here,

Religion is what we all choose as our way of talking to God. To succeed a
religion MUST elevate the spirit and give us hope for the future. Islam does
this well for over a billion people. It is not a religion made for and by
psychopaths. It's a way to talk to God, not Lucifer.

Recognition of this fact—the practical utility of religion—is a foundation
stone of the United States of America. The First Amendment of the Constitution
is supposed to protect freedom of religion, though there are some today who try
to transform it into freedom FROM religion, which is a stand worthy only of
contempt. In "The Sum of All Fears" I tried to propose that if we recognize
religions by the good things they uphold, we could defuse much of the
perversions which come about from people who in fact if not in form spit upon
the faiths they claim to represent and promote.

The smartest thing we Americans can do today is to embrace Islam and its
values. To do so would go a long way toward isolating the Islamic "guerillas"
from the peasant sea in which they must swim to survive. But when does the
government do anything smart?

Appeal to a man's best instincts, and you will see those instincts. Treat him
as a sociopath will help to transform him into one.

TC