General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTwo Ex-Army Rangers Believe Flip Flops And Sarongs Will Defeat ISIS
http://gizmodo.com/two-ex-army-rangers-believe-flip-flops-and-sarongs-will-1687822266I recently met two ex-Army Rangers in a bar, and got onto the topic of the war against ISIS. They told me they knew the solution: flip flops. I scoffed, which probably isn't something you should do to an Army Ranger's face. And they put me in my place.
Matthew "Griff" Griffin and Donald Lee both served multiple tours in Afghanistan fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban. These are the guys behind Combat Flip Flops. They still see it as their mission to defeat Islamic extremism in Afghanistan and they think they can do so more effectively with jobs than they ever could by dropping bombs.
Combat Flip Flops makes flip flops in Colombia, bags in America, sarongs and shemaghs in Afghanistan, and jewelry in Laos.
"Your average fighter just wants to go make money to feed their families," explains Lee. "The average annual income for an Afghan is $600. If you give them the option and say 'Hey, I'll give you $50 to go plant this bomb or I'll give you a job where you can make an honest wage and you don't have to worry about getting killed,' they'll take the job. It's proven, it works."
Snip
phantom power
(25,966 posts)So crazy, it might work...
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)7962
(11,841 posts)Although many terrorists we've seen in the past are educated and come from well-off families. I do think money matters to some, the question is how many.
bullwinkle428
(20,631 posts)representative say something just like this last week?
Oneironaut
(5,530 posts)I could see RWingers throwing the free money into a bonfire because it's "Socialist."
Brigid
(17,621 posts)I would pay money to see that.
appal_jack
(3,813 posts)Brigid
(17,621 posts)Coventina
(27,195 posts)surest cure for extremism.
It convinced me.
Dustlawyer
(10,497 posts)as a solution to just about everything else! I guess because they want to sell more bombs, bullets, and planes!
adieu
(1,009 posts)are the cure.
niyad
(113,595 posts)I would love for ron paul to repeat his remarks about food stamps and war to them.
tclambert
(11,087 posts)When we use them we have to buy more. They make even more money if they sell to both sides. See? It's a win-win-win situation . . . for High Explosives, Inc. Not so much for taxpayers or people living near where the bombs go off. But that's okay, because none of the executives of HEI live anywhere near war zones.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)Except we would have to find jobs for all those in the MIC who have been making their living off of the wars.
I think these two men are right and they are telling us why we have such a mess all over the world. The last time this happened on a world wide scale we had WWII.
However, how do we do this without sending more of our jobs over seas?