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Sunday, August 20, 2006
The Middle East  Yesterday, tomorrow, and then some...We've all seen the headline "Middle East in Crisis",and it got me to wondering why this was news.If I picked up a paper and saw"Middle East - not - in Crisis",well hey, that would be news. Take a quick look at just very recent history.Israel vs PalestiniansIsreal vs HamasIsreal vs HezbollahIs there a pattern emerging here? You could look at that and say the neighborhood bully is picking on all the other kids on the block, but is that really the case? Put the shoe on the other foot, and you might start thinking that some Arabs just don't like the Jews living so close. There was a time when the Middle East actually wasn't in crisis, but you would never have read that headline. It was before the printing press was invented. All that quiet solitude got rattled forever when an army of Christian knights decided that all those non-believers on the southern side of the Mediterranean really needed to be converted. We called this little episode The Crusades, and it was a bad idea, a really, really, bad idea. Those people that were living in the desert weren't bothering anyone, but some folks can't leave well enough alone.The desert dwellers didn't take kindly to this particular invasion, but then again, who would? It also turned out, they were prone to hold a grudge, and the grudge has lasted now for a thousand years. "Death to the infidels" was the battle cry back then. Have you seen that printed on a poster on your tv set lately? The slogan has lasted as long as the grudge. Makes you want to say "Get over it already". When my grandparents stepped off the boat onto Ellis Island, the streets of New York didn't treat them very kindly. Does that mean I should hate all White Anglo Saxon Protestants? That was only two generations ago. According to the grudge rule of thumb, I should be seething with rage, and passing that on to my children. I know it's not politically correct to use a phrase like "the civilized world", because it suggests that other parts of the globe are less than. Sorry sports fans, but it has to be said, some parts of the Middle East are less than civilized. I know, I know, the region lays claim to some of the oldest civilizations man has known. The Pyramids, Babylon, Mesipotamia, all wonders of the world in their time. One look at the region now, and whether you like science fiction or not, you have to start believing in time warps. Diplomacy has failed, the UN has failed, war itself has failed, because it never stops. There are always cease-fires, but all they seem to accomplish is to allow either side to rebuild their arsenals. There are no easy answers, that's a foregone conclusion. The big problem is, there may be no answer at all. There's a mind-set in the region that has festered since the middle ages, and that has to change, one way or the other. The only good news for the US, or at least for our administrators in DC, is that this crisis has knocked Iraq right off the front page. Now we can all shake our heads and say "Won't those people ever learn?". No more pictures of car bombs for us until this is over. Republished from Exit 4 http://exit-4.blogspot.com Blogger News Network is advertiser-supported, and your visits to our advertisers help BNN to meet its expenses. Help keep us afloat! posted by John Pangia at 9:14 PM |
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