Us Economic Fix

[mustafabey]

Now the Obama administration has come up with a way to increase job growth. Let's export more death! Weapons systems to Saudi to deal with Iranian threats, weapons systems to Israel to keep them ahead of the Saudis, now if we could just find a behind the scenes way to sell arms to Iran.................Oh Ollie North where are you now???

[url="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/09/201091312118406560.html"]Saudi arms sale[/url]

And we wonder why the Middle East is such a terrible mess

[noodle]

I'm torn between telling the world "Guys, you need to take care of your own problems. We can't do it for you." and the urge to nip problems in the bud. Humanitarian efforts, overthrowing dictators is well and good, but the US can't be the world's policeman, particularly when nobody else wants to help.

[Rani]

[quote name='noodle' timestamp='1284406050' post='482060']
I'm torn between telling the world "Guys, you need to take care of your own problems. We can't do it for you." and the urge to nip problems in the bud. Humanitarian efforts, overthrowing dictators is well and good, but the US can't be the world's policeman, particularly when nobody else wants to help.
[/quote]

I'm in the same boat mentally. I have many Middle Eastern friends. Nearly all of them say somebody with some power, which pretty leaves the US, needs to straighten the region up, because it's so very troubled. But the grey areas stretch all the way from there to here. How many times have we backed what we believed to be a reasonable leader only to find out we gave money and weaponry to a total despot? Just because you [u]think[/u] you're doing the right thing doesn't guarantee you actually are. What about the issue of self-determination? Would America be so resolved to maintain it's freedom and it's ideals if we hadn't actually fought for them ourselves, even though we did have assistance from France who later had reason to regret it when we showed what a population could do against a monarchy? Because we have a history of interfering, maybe we're the last nation that should be doing anything to help settle the region. A sizable portion of the world views us as the ultimate bad guy and I'm not certain that due to our clumsy intervention and greedy self interest, we don't deserve that title. So maybe just because of our history, we ought to let someone else play referee. It might be accepted more.

I'm personally appalled at the beliefs of extremists in the region. Their treatment of women, their tendency to insist that their religion is the only true one, which we know from history doesn't work so well in the long run, all does nothing to endear them to the rest of the world. But I don't think the answer can ever be war. You can only bring peace with knowledge, never with tanks.

'Rani

[Chreees]

We should get all of our troops, and our shit (weapons) out of there. Damn government won't let us, though, because of the money (oil) that is to be made there. We never should've been there in the first place. Us being there is why they hate us. It all goes back to this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

[mustafabey]

Amazing Chris, I was just thinking about that myself. The Iranians never forgot that meddling. Its not about democracy, freedom. human rights, women's issues etc, thats just how we sell it to the voters. Its about oil and control and it may get worse if we don't curb our appetite. Already there is intense competition in Africa between the US and China over oil. We have increased our military commitment there, under the umbrella of the war on terror. What is the war on terror anyway but state sponsored terrorism(example: the Mossadegh affair) vs non state sponsored terrorism. Just wait till the water wars hit! China is running out very rapidly, between pollution and increased usage( everyone wants a flush toilet!) China harvests water from the Himalayas, hence the importance of Tibet. India is feeling the flow lessen. Those wars may surface before the oil wars in which case America, if she plays her cards right, may yet come out on top. New words like eco-refugees are creeping into our vocabulary, and then theirs global warming,WHOOPS, I forgot Rush said theres no such thing, its a commie(muslim) pinko fag plot.

[Chreees]

Oh, I totally believe that the "war of terror" is just a cover-up to allow us where we want to go in that whole region over there.

[Tyler]

If we stopped helping people, stopped fighting wars, we'd have enough money to buy all the oil we wanted. Too bad no one would sell it to us because then they'd all hate us for not helping. We can't win. Get over it. Stop playing theorycraft. Just do you.