In my opinion there are two theories on how to solve the Middle East Crisis that have any chance of working.
One: Be really hard on terror. Perhaps if we want terrorism to go away, we should really come down hard on it. Perhaps terrorists are like a disobedient child where if you smack them hard enough they will stop doing bad things. I'm serious and not being sarcastic. (However I do not advocate abuse of children) In reality, perhaps the only way to stop terrorism is to unleash a very heavy hand on terrorists and governments who assist against terrorists. Perhaps we as a country need to declare all out war on terrorists and those who support them. Perhaps once they see we mean business they will stop.
Two: Being in the middle east only adds fuel to the fire. Get Out. Perhaps if we wanted terrorism to go away we should get out of the middle east. A republican presidential candidate, Ron Paul, pointed out in the last Republican debate:(See below) if you actually talk to terrorists you find out they attack us because we have invaded the middle east, we tell them what they can and cannot do, then we launch attacks on them if they don't obey. Here is the actual letter from Osama bin Laden explaining why he attacked us which supports the idea that he attacked us because we are in the middle east and meddling in their affairs which he interprets as an assault against "his people." In Ron Paul's eyes, if we do not stop meddling in middle east affairs we will only cause more terrorists and make things more dangerous for our country.
So which theory if implemented will actually make America safer? Only history will tell and all theory is laid waste once reality kicks in. I only hope we can find a solution the country can be unified in, even if it has to be a superposition of the two above ideas.
There's also the third theoretical way to fix the Middle East: end the world's dependence on oil as an energy source. That way all of the crazies and terrorists will be just like the crazies and terrorists in any other part of the world. Without the world's money coming in to pay for oil, the Middle East's terrorists would just be local whack-o's, rather than well-funded organized killers. Of course that's at least a few decades away, but maybe someday it will happen.
ReplyDeleteThat is if leaving them alone or bombing the whole region back to the stone age doesn't solve the problem first.
Actually Nick, you bring up a good point. If they were penniless they couldn't do half the stuff they do.
ReplyDeleteNow that I think about it, your idea is going to be something I will study up on. I've heard it before many times, but I would love for extremists to be penniless.
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