The First Issue We Must Squarely Face…

[The Lone Liberal]

Is that at the end of WWII to compensate for doing nothing while Hitler was killing Jews, we plunked a colony of Europeans down in the Middle-east displacing thousands of Arabs who had been there for a thousand years. I truly believe until we accept that little piece of history for what it was we are never going to start down a road to a solution. You couple that with OUR insatiable need for petroleum and you have the nexus for the current situation in which we find ourselves.

To undo all of the piss-poor choices we have made is going to require some major shake up of our society. We may not be up to the challenge. It is for sure and for certain that our current so-called leaders are not of the caliber required to fashion some solution to this problem.

[salinen]

1. Yes, this is anthropology 101

And yes, the so-called leaders are basically corporate cheifs who disquise themselves as caring for us. Hunker down, they will not let go.

[greatauntoftriplets]

2. This may not be too popular, but...

I tend to see the Palestinians much the way I do the Native Americans in this country. Sadly, most of the Native Americans are dead, assimilated into "white" society or on reservations, many either living a piss-poor life or depending on casinos for revenue. Not all are that bad, but....

[KareBear]

3. There really is only one sure way historically

to occupy and keep a foriegn country. You must genocide its native inhabitants. Its been done over and over again throughout history. Now I'm not saying I condone this course of action, far from it. But that's just how things tend to be. If its NOT done then eventually the native population will drift away from the centrist rule and revolt.

I look at things like the Israel/Palestinian situation and can't help but compare it to things like the European settling of North America. Obviously in the modern world genocide is not acceptable, the question then becomes how DOES a conquering power subvert the native population effectively? These are hard questions to answer. Idealy of course there would be no conquering powers on natively occupied lands. But that, I'm afraid, is a pipe dream.

I've often wondered how long it will be until Bush just comes right out and says that yes, he wants the oil in Iraq, doesn't give a fig about the Iraqis, has decided to kill them all and make Iraq the 51st state. Nothing would surprise me out of that man at this point.