Re: The Golden dome destruction.
Rodbolt,If I had a solution I would either be dead or a nobel prize winner, probably both.<br />But seriously.The lines were drawn after ww1 and the only reason we draw lines and try to pacify these areas is opportunistic and flows out of the 19 century imperialistic attitude where the west knows best and must educate the aboriginals. <br />The people that live there were rewarded or punished by the west for services delivered or denied.Sometimes both.<br />Europe and north America became stable areas because of a roughly simular judeo-christian culture and agelong economic interdependence.Add to that a balance of power and mutual respect for the same principals and peace is at your doorstep.<br />The middle eastern countries did not progressively develop to this point.Right until the 1920s they were in their dark ages of tribalism without resources.In comes oil and without a renaissance or enlightenment these tribal societies were thrown into the western 20th century.How's that for cultural shock? Not only are they lost,they also are taken advantage of by western oil companies.1973 puts an end to the power of big oil over these nations.Now they are really lost.They own the greatest resource in the world but most of them do not know how to read a map.<br />The new situation develops where some of the poor get educated to the point where they are smarter than their leaders,but are left powerless and poor by their leaders.Religions kicks in as the one and only stable value and falls in the hands of the frustated educated.We know the rest.<br />What is the solution?<br />I think there are 2.<br />The first one would be to try and educate as many as possible and try to create a new ruling elite that is secular and pro western.(example:american university Beirut Lebanon).This is still based on imperialist principles.<br />The second one is to try and disengage.This will allow them to have their own renaissance and enlightenment and eventually the forces of tolerance will become stronger simply because the fanatics have nothing left to push off against.This we can only do if we are willing to become independent of oil.<br />The moslem people have a great history of preserving all the greek philosophy and sciences while Europe was drowning in the dark ages.The Arabs added Algebra to our science.This got us to the moon.<br />Personally I believe that it would be best to set perimeters to retreat behind and let them sort out their own troubles on their own while we try to be a shining light of rationalism, visible to all<br />In the meantime we can prevent ourselves from slipping into our own dark ages where already today preachers tell us what science is and how it should be taught.<br />Last of all,we should stop acting as if we know better than the rest.The French do it to us and that is why we hate them.
