The Semon on the Mount works

[silverlib]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1220/p09s01-coop.html?s=hns

Humanitarian aid: winning the terror war
Peaceful military missions are curbing anti-US feelings in the Muslim world.
By Kenneth Ballen

WASHINGTON – The flagship for the war on terror could well be the US Navy ship Mercy. But this Navy vessel is not armed for battle. Just the opposite: It is fitted for peace.

The Mercy is a fully equipped, 1,000-bed floating hospital, which returned in September from giving medical care and training to the people of Indonesia, Bangladesh, East Timor, and the Philippines. The US Navy, Project HOPE, and other volunteer medical personnel provided free medical care, including major surgeries, for nearly 61,000 needy patients.
Amid the uncertainty about the best strategy in Iraq and how to answer the growing threat of terrorism and extremism in the world, there is one American policy of the past two years that has proven successful time and again: humanitarian missions by the US military. This policy is pro-military, pro-American, pro-humanitarian, and antiterrorist. Most important, it is actually curbing anti-American feelings in Muslim countries.

In global public-opinion surveys, Terror Free Tomorrow, the nonprofit organization I lead, found that the US military's humanitarian missions to the broader Muslim world have directly caused a dramatic drop in popular support of terrorism and extremism.

The surveys also showed a corresponding rise in favorable public opinion of the United States.

[Critters2]

1. This is why the Peacee Corps is important, and ought to be treated

with more respect--not to mention better funding--than it is. Sending Americans into the world to help rather than hurt could do everyone a lot of good.

Is this not obvious?

Thanks for sharing this. The Monitor is a great newspaper!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Let's see, reverse the budgets of the Peace Corps and the Marine Corps..

that would be a good start. :-)

No seriously, back during the Reagan years, I saw an op-ed outlining what could be done with Reagan's military budget. There was a whole LIST of things that could be done with the money then be spent on the military, and ONE of the items was providing safe drinking water to every person in the world.

That's how much money our government is spending on death and destruction, folks.