neil wrote:so come up with an alternative to it that might actually achieve the same results
Have you been to America?
It's a nation where only 8% of the population possess a passport.
You can ask two mechanics working on a car for directions to a town only 20 miles away and chances are they won't have a clue.
They think the world ends in Antigua.
One of them once asked me if I understood miles as opposed to kilometres.
Google Maps originally had driving instructions from Paris to London with the instruction 'at Calais, turn left.'
What I am saying is, for a nation of gas guzzlers who drive an 8 litre truck to a shop accross the road, cannot fathom geography, religion, diversity or tolerance, they don't half interfere in the business of nations they can't point to on a map, mostly to source the oil they crave so badly. In a nutshell they both finance the Muslim extremists they've demonised (rightly) via seemingly legitimate Arabian brokers and at the same time piss them off to the extent that they themselves are demonised.