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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bentway who wrote (160766)	4/21/2005 11:29:44 AM
From: michael97123	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

True colours shining through. So if a country has oil it is worth something. Are you for plundering the natural resources of others. You are a fucking idiot. On ignore.

To: bentway who wrote (160766)	4/21/2005 12:34:06 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

It's simple realpolitics You are fixated on Israel as if this one little patch ruled everything else in the Middle East. I tell you, this is a bill of goods. If Israel had never been, wouldn't there still have been a Cold War? If Israel had never been, wouldn't there still have been oil in the Middle East? If Israel had never been, would the Arab countries & Iran still be ruled by a set of kings, autocrats, and oligarchs? If Israel had never been, wouldn't the US and the USSR still have been in competition for access to their oil? If Israel had never been, wouldn't these rotten governments still have been propped up by a river of oil money, giving them ample funds no matter how badly they ruled? If Israel had never been, wouldn't the suffering people under these corrupt rulers still hated the great colonial powers whom they blamed (with reason) for propping up their awful governments? When you come down to it, what would have been different if Israel had never been? The Arabs couldn't have fought five wars against Israel, and a whole bunch of diplomats would have needed different careers. So the Arab autocrats would have fought more wars against each other (they fought some anyhow); how much difference would it have made to the big picture? For over fifty years, the Arab rules have tried to sell Israel as the Great Excuse to their own people. You live under martial law because of Israel. The economy doesn't work because of Israel. You can't have democracy because of Israel. There can be no local reform because the Palestinians are suffering. Etc, etc. Most Arabs believed it, though I think it's wearing thin as an excuse. But why should you believe it?