obama is taking my $

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by The Goat

FRPLG and Schneed10, from you're comments I have to assume you both are under the mistaken impression US funding to help reduce population explosion somehow involves forced contraceptive, abortion, etc. From all my research, conversations w/ those who spend time working on these issues in the Peace Corp or other organizations, and a good deal of time spent in the published works of J. Sachs and other economists concentrating on these types of issues, I've never heard of forced contraceptive or abortion wrt US funded programs. To be sure, there are horrific atrocities occurring in these dark corners of the world and mostly related to extreme population explosion over the last several decades. The preponderance of research and indeed the historical record shows women prefer to have the option/availability of these services and do in fact choose to have fewer children in the long run. Again, they're choice, not something forced on them.

... sitting in a country that basically has no overcrowding issues, where resources are not strained to their limits and where we have all the freedoms in the world... and to put our plump hands over our ears and ignore what is going on in the utterly impoverished regions of Africa and the Middle-East... horrifically alarming on a moral level. Or rather it's just deeply, deeply ignorant.

No my comments were based solely on yours which Schneed pointed out inferred that one of Bush's failings as a President was a lack of support in reducing populations in terrorists base countries by whatever means. Since the basis of this thread it seems pretty reasonable to me that you were supporting paying for abortions. Are you saying you believe that the foundation of terrorism is rooted in overcrowding?

[The Goat]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

No my comments were based solely on yours which Schneed pointed out inferred that one of Bush's failings as a President was a lack of support in reducing populations in terrorists base countries by whatever means. Since the basis of this thread it seems pretty reasonable to me that you were supporting paying for abortions. Are you saying you believe that the foundation of terrorism is rooted in overcrowding?

I'm not comfortable w/ funding abortions because ultimately i'm pro-life. What i recognize is decades of total negligence (by the US and world community) and inherent cultural norms in these troubled regions have created a population explosion almost impossible for us to imagine. Just like I cannot be comfortable w/ China's formula for pop control, I do recognize the Chinese gov knew it had to do something.

... Roots of terrorism aren't that simple is my guess. I did read a study once claiming if you look at where terrorists come from there's an extremely high correlation w/ massive US military installations. It's not a strong thesis because obviously we've got huge installations in S. Korea and elsewhere but don't see them recruit terrorists. Obviously there's more to the equation (although I was surprised to find out how much Koreans and Japanese dislike our military presence in their countries). The bigger picture w/ overcrowding is it sets the stage for strife, violent conflict, etc. Sachs does a good job of relating the professional journal research (boring) to real world, and basically what we find is that the common denominator in regions across the world for ongoing violent conflict is a very high TFR (total fertility rate) - not religious differences, political disagreements, etc.