[link|http://www.willrogers.org/|Who was Will Rogers]

Will Rogers was famous for his simple homespun humour & philosophy - he came from a very humble background but became a national phenomenon.

***********************
Excerpts from the original post (last 2 para)

The choice, then, is ours. We can chronically trim, dig, and cut back \ufffd
preventing the terrorists from sprouting, seeding out, and spreading.
Or, as with embracing the costly but systematic Roundup, we can
decide now to blow apart its very roots, which are intertwined and
so deeply entrenched in the very soil of the Middle East. Our efforts
need not be solely military, but may be political and idealistic as
well: working for democratic reform in the Gulf; explaining to the
Syrians, Libyans, and Iranians that we consider them all captive
peoples, who, like Eastern Europeans, suffer under the yoke of
tyrannies and thus are deserving of our support for democratic
revolution. We should seek out more liberal members of the
Saudi royal family and explain to them that democratic reform
alone can now prevent the collapse of their entire regime.

The latter systematic choice in the short-term \ufffd the ending of
Saddam Hussein; ultimatums to Syria and Iran to cease their
succor to Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, or else; a
reckoning with the terrorist enclaves in Lebanon; a gradual
dissolution of alliances with the autocracies of Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, and Jordan; subsidies to democratic reformers
throughout the Middle East \ufffd is both unorthodox, frightening,
and easily caricatured. But, in the long term, it offers the only
hope of destroying weeds like al Qaeda for good. Anything less
and we are simply pruning back a perennial pest.

*****************


Seems to me this philosopher has spent so much time on the farm studying weeds he has failed to study why the terrorist situation really came (comes) about. All that oil he tried to kill those weeds with has more to do with terrorism & hostility to us in the west.

Again, seems to me the parable he tells would be better described as if the johnsongrass was being seeded by agents from the state & federal govt covertly carrying out govt policies of which mere mortals can't fully understand. To get rid of the weed requires that the govt change its policies but it is a catch-22 because the govt is actually carrying out unpalatable polices behind the scenes to protect the comfy life on the farm that is so much taken for granted.

Overall this homespun philosophy appears to show country bumpkin style pig-ignorance of realpolitik.

Cheers

Doug Marker

#1 - realign text to make cut & paste more readable
#2 fix typos