The New Rule Book says, "Let's play to win"

Submitted by RPaine (Australia), Jul 25, 2003 at 23:10

Dear Mr. Pipes,

Mr. Harris is talking about reality. I agree with him; we also need to do far more than just talk about it; terrorism will not just go away; and we must not allow the islamists to convince us that it is someone else’s problem, someone else's fault.

As an American who has lived abroad off-and-on for 15 years, I think that there are two aspects to winning this war: (1) Mr Harris' suggested means of leveling the playing field by playing the game to win, rather than just to see who can adhere the rules more precisely! and (2) to identify and counter any and all means for these islamist and their sympathizers to peddle their vile excuse ridden blame game through their networks--including, political opportunists, muslim-cab drivers, teachers, academia, muslim leaders, charities, media apologists, Hollywood apologist movies, etc.. We must not allow ourselves to falter when humanity is counting on our steely resolve to overcome the challenge--and we can!

Simply, the militant Muslim influence in the world at present is one that makes their followers see the US and West as "the Evil Satin" (etc.) and they are all in such bad shape because of the decadence of the West (etc.). From my experience, these peoples will continue to achieve nothing as long as they continue to shirk responsibility.

Responsibility. This is the word that they most need to learn. Responsibility is the word that has made the West great. We are taught to take Responsibility for our actions, and it is best learned by going through the exercise. This is why I agree with Mr. Harris, we need to teach Responsibility to these islamists, and we need to do it now. Or our children and grand children will suffer and die in misery-- this is our Responsibility to prevent. And we can!

I'll leave you with a quote from another challenging time that resulted in success humanity:
"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman." --Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

Kind Regards,
Russell Paine

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