Musings on the mid-east
Originally posted by 302 LX Eric
I say we quit intervening over there...just let them all kill themselves in civil wars/border wars/ethnic wars and then we'll go in and setup a more modern type government system that promotes equality, justice and a better way of life.
Sounds good - doesn't work.
They have been at war for thousands of years - it's a 'tribal' thing - but since the establishment of Israel (1948) that tiny country has been the main focus of aggression, although Iraq and Iran went at it for quite some time and other mid-east countries have fought, they ALL hate Israel and by linkage, the U.S.
Even if your scenario was possible (U.S. leaves the area, Arabs kill off the majority of each other - U.S. then returns and imposes democracy) you cannot impose democracy and a Western culture on Arabs...it wouldn't work for a moment.
You would have to defeat them totally (think Germany and Japan after WWII) and not only give them no choice, but change the entire Arab/Muslim culture as Islam is a stifling religion that has had a lot to do with holding back the Arab world. They are not going to abandon it - no more than the U.S. is going to abandon Christianity. Any attempt to 'impose' anything like democracy would come to no good end.
These freaking people crack me up. Their religion /culture/beliefs have been around for THOUSANDS of years over there in the "Dust Bowl" and all they can come up with is what? Oil. That's it.
'They' didn't even 'come up with it', American oil companies did back in the early part of the last century. We found the oil, drilled for it, pumped it out and transported it and we naturally paid the Arabs a fee, a big fee, for doing this on their land. Worked well for a long time.
Then, in the early seventies, they formed OPEC and basically 'nationalized' (i.e. took ownership of the oil fields). We needed the oil so we went along or it was a war with the entire Arab world, which we were not prepared to fight (and still aren't).
That's when the price of gas started going up. If American (and British) companies hadn't found and extracted the oil, the Arab world would be much like Africa today; hell on earth, mostly. Instead it's more like a mitigated hell. They have modern conveniences but not many really own anything and your chances of making a better life are slim to none if you remain in your home country, which is why many try so hard to immigrate to the Great Satan....America, an irony that you and many others catch clearly.
You got a bunch of starving, improverished, part nomadic, harsh, and sometime downright barbaric lifestyle (except for the wealthy top 0.00001%). In India they still have a caste system (even though the government "claims" that it is illegal.) They still poop in outdoor stalls where a person from the lowest caste has to clean it up with a board! Gives new meaning to 'poop' on a shingle!
Yes, the entire region is very impoverished and backward due to Islam and corrupt governments as well as a failure to move out of the 14th century. Pathetic.
Now, America has been around for about 225 years or so, and what have we accomplished? ALOT! The quality of life here is great, the average age of death has increased every year since records have been maintained. Food is plentiful. We share the longest friendly boarder in the world (Canada). And you know, for all the bitching these people do, where else in the world Muslims, Jews, Christians, Afro-Americans, Asian Americans, Native American's, etc. live as neighbors without killing each other?
Freedom is a wonderous thing and produces unbelievable results but those who despise freedom despise us because America's success just shows how corrupt and hopeless these dictatorships and the nasty, hatfeul tribal attitudes that keep people at war with each other forever pull down a people and quash hope.
What's even more hypocritical is how they curse us one day and idolize us the next. Or, complain about our great country and then compete for their lives to be accepted into American or European Universities. Complete crap.
You've noticed that too?
I'm all for oil exploration in the great Northwest and Russia too. I cringe knowing how dependent we are on Saudi area oil.
So do I. This is why we put up with them but as we work (and fight) to oust dictators from the mid-east and put the terrorists on the run, we're also aiming to make the region friendlier and to intimidate the little kings in places like Saudi and Jordan to play ball with us or find themselves deposed one fine day, king of nothing and 'in exile'.
The Saudi 'royal family' knows they are in power only because we allow them to be and they play ball with us or be gone. The Saudi's time is coming but American can't fight every Arab nation at once so we pick them off by importance and how much threat they are to us. The Saudi's pose little military threat but Iraq does, so Iraq is in the gunsights now. We'll deal with the Saudis and others in good time and the more dictators we topple, the easier the next dictator/king will be to either oust or have willingly be our sock puppet.
God Bless America.
Amen
|