I never said that they are right.TallDave wrote:Shrug. They're wrong. Part of the reason they live in such squalor is they don't think very well. Liberal democracy is a learning process, both economically and politically, which they have been deprived. ........The problem is that in their eyes our politicians behaved (in removing Saddam) exactly like Saddam was behaving with his people, and for this we are hated in the same way they hated Saddam.
If they think that was "acting like Saddam..."
I am just pointing to what the majority of the people I met believe.
And like I wrote before, we can discuss why they believe this, but that's not the main issue for me.
He forgot religion. When you are raised in ignorance and kept in ignorance by your religious class is difficult to understand how the world should really be.TallDave wrote:As Dogbert says, the most powerful force in the universe is Ignorance, followed by Apathy.
Freedom and religion are two concepts that cannot coexist in power.
We have seen this in our past history and we are seeing this in ME.
We should have helped them to create a secularist environment before giving them freedom to play with.
Problem is that we are the first to be governed by religious influence, so we hardly can be an example for anyone.
That's a very naif way to see the main issue.TallDave wrote:The resources are only important because the region is so backwards that they're the only source of wealth. Did you know the U.S. produces more oil than Iran, Iraq and Kuwait combined? Most of our real wealth lies in the intangible assets of the society we've built.to the control of ME resources that is the reason of all the mess in the ME is right now. I hope we can all agree on this point.
What you say in regard to production of OIL is true, but you are forgetting that US consumes THREE times the amount of OIL it produces, meaning they need to import 66% of their need.
And while is true that a good part of US wealth is in intangible assets, US is still the first country in the world for manufacturing of goods, and you need oil for that. You cannot feed US power plants furnaces with Intangible assets (even if that might not be such a bad idea, but for other reasons....)