>I think that's true, to some extent, for the leadership. But the extreme poverty in that part of the world makes recruiting foot soldiers much easier. When people are struggling to eat and have no schools for their kids, feeding them and educating their children creates tremendous loyalty. And of course, educating those kids provides a tremendous opportunity to make the kids believe what you want them to believe.
>
>I find it interesting that when a Republican president wants to establish a democracy in a country beseiged by dictatorship, he's criticized for trying to promote our lifestyle on others. But now you're saying that propping up their economic and education standards w ill generate loyalty. So which is it?

I didn't say we should go in and establish American-style schools. The interesting thing about what Greg Mortensen (the guy from "Three Cups of Tea") is doing is that he's building and funding schools for the locals to run. In fact, the book talks a fair amount about what he had to do to be accepted by the local Muslims so that they'd believe he wasn't trying to brainwash their kids.

I have no problem feeding and educating people anywhere in the world. I do have a problem with toppling their governments on our own. I think we do a much better job of promoting democracy when we behave democratically (even, in fact especially, when it's painful to do so) and when we demonstrate why democracy is the way to go. You can't impose democracy on people. You can set up something that looks like democracy, but it's not likely to work that way.

Tamar