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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Amy J who wrote (185728)	3/28/2004 9:38:17 PM
From: i-node	Respond to of 1572153

Hopefully, the US can get dependent upon a different energy source, so we are not dependent upon middle east stability. We never should have made their war, our war. We should not be the brunt end of Saudi Arabia's oppressive regime. Unfortunately, oil isn't the only reason we have to have stability in the region. For example, in the coming 20 years there is going to be major infighting in the MidEast over water rights. This instability will be just as much a problem for us. The reality is that as long as you have people who have no dignity and nothing to lose, you can't have stability. And that instability is going to take the form of hatred for those who have everything -- the United States. This is the reason the Iraq War is the best possible solution to the problem of terrorism against the West. Once the people of Iraq have their dignity restored (which already is happening, but will take some more time), the pressure will mount in the entire region for democracy to spread. And it will. Democracy will bring hope and dignity back to the region. As it does, they lose their reasons to hate us. Many on this thread and elsewhere are confused, thinking this is a war over religion. It isn't. Religion is an innocent bystander that is being injured in the process. What is really interesting is that the oil revenue, this godsend to the region, is precisely what keeps them under the thumb of the dictators. As Tom Friedman has pointed out, when the oil revenue is no longer enough to keep the population down (as in Iran, where the population has increased substantially over the last 20 years) you begin to get dissent which will be followed by a road to democracy. As to the Palestinians, the best hope is for the remainder of the region to involve themselves in helping them have something in their lives. They don't want peace right now.