How would you handle the Middle East?

[2952-0-0]

My solution: give the Palestinians Patriot Missiles, Apache helicopters, tanks and F16s and then both sides will sit down to talk. Easy, simple, effective.

[patrick1]

...An effective way to end the state of Israel.  The only way that the Israel has been able to exist is through its military superiority.  The second that miltary superiority is over there would be a massive invasion and destruction of the nation and its people.  From the moment of its founded the surrounding Arab neighbors have sought to push it into the sea.  They failed and lost land in the process.  What you really propose is a destruction of Israel.   

[The Duke]

Actually,there wouldn't be deterrence.  You'd just have a more evenly matched (and therefore more bloody) war.  This thing is almost over anyway.

[opebo]

Seize the oil.  Who cares what the people there do?

[2952-0-0]

I'd give them a year to figure out a deal. And then... Just because you have weapons doesn't mean you'll use them. Besides, who is the #1 armer of Israel?

[J-Mann]

To quote Darth Sidious..."Wipe them out.  All of them."

[Hitchabrut]

Exile Palestinians in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and the rest of the Middle East to the Western Sahara, Give back Sinai and South Lebanon to Israel.

[patrick1]

Exile Palestinians in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and the rest of the Middle East to the Western Sahara, Give back Sinai and South Lebanon to Israel.

That's a real equitable solution;) ^^^

Some ideas that might work were people not so intransigent:  Palestinians give up right of return, Israelis dismantle settlements in West Bank and Gaza or at least make it known that the settlers are on their own, Palestian state of West Bank and Gaza with a capital in parts of East Jerusalem.  State would have to be madated to renounce any territorial claims to the already existing Israeli state.. U.N. could maintain access to Al Aqsa/Temple mount area

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Get an independent Palestinean state created.

That'll begin the end of the problems. Arafat's not around anymore to screw things up, this means the Palestineans calm down, the Israelis don't want to take such a hard line position anymore and Sharon's out, moderates take both sides, problem resolved.

[Bugs]

The US needs to find an alternate energy source.  Encourage US oil companies to spearhead the research, so they will be interested in the change.  This eventually cuts off the Middle East's supply of money. 

[Colin]

The US needs to find an alternate energy source.  Encourage US oil companies to spearhead the research, so they will be interested in the change.  This eventually cuts off the Middle East's supply of money. 

Or promote drilling in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, the West, and Canada. That way we can become less dependent on Mideast oil. Also promote oil development in South America.

[Akno21]

The US needs to find an alternate energy source.  Encourage US oil companies to spearhead the research, so they will be interested in the change.  This eventually cuts off the Middle East's supply of money. 

Or promote drilling in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, the West, and Canada. That way we can become less dependent on Mideast oil. Also promote oil development in South America.

Why don't we become less dependent on oil, no matter where it's from? It's eventually gonna run out, we gotta be ready.

[Colin]

The US needs to find an alternate energy source.  Encourage US oil companies to spearhead the research, so they will be interested in the change.  This eventually cuts off the Middle East's supply of money. 

Or promote drilling in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, the West, and Canada. That way we can become less dependent on Mideast oil. Also promote oil development in South America.

Why don't we become less dependent on oil, no matter where it's from? It's eventually gonna run out, we gotta be ready.

Well I would rather leave that up to the companies themselves. If they see that reserves are running out they will research new technologies on their own and do it with government intervention.

[The Duke]

I'd give them a year to figure out a deal. And then... Just because you have weapons doesn't mean you'll use them. Besides, who is the #1 armer of Israel?

The palestinians are currently using what weapons they have.  I'd like you to give me one reason why a better armed Palestine would suddenly change its behavior.

The fact that the US is Israel's number one armer is immamterial.  I'd like to know what reason one has for even bringing it up, other than to insult the United States.  If you did bring it up to isult the United States, perhaps you should pick something else, I for one am proud that we are the first nation on Earth to help the Jews defend themselves from their oppressors.  None before us have ever stood up for the Jews.

[phk]

Jerry Falwell has.

[Lunar]

The US needs to find an alternate energy source.  Encourage US oil companies to spearhead the research, so they will be interested in the change.  This eventually cuts off the Middle East's supply of money. 

Or promote drilling in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, the West, and Canada. That way we can become less dependent on Mideast oil. Also promote oil development in South America.

Why not do both?  That's my philosophy.

One's a short term solution that's only slightly effective while one's a long term.  While ideally we wouldn't need government intervention to encourage this alternative fuel development, it's a matter of national security.

[patrick1]

The whole business of us becoming less dependent on Mideast oil is a chimera in the macroeconomic sense.  Say we don't buy Saudi oil and instead buy Russian, Mexican oil etc etc.  The Chinese/Japanese/French, take your pick, will just take our place and buy it. The oil commodities market is a global marketplace. We buy a lot of Mideast oil now because Exxon/mobil, Texaco, Shell etc make a business decision   that the oil is cheaper and the infrastructure is there and it is easier to get to market. If we don't buy from them someone will.  However, it is beneficial to come up with alternative energy sources because oil could eventually get too expensive to extract and there will be an significant upward pressure on prices and it is probably better for the environment as well.  I am not so sure that cutting off the Middle East 's supply of money is a very good thing either.  The oil market goes belly up and we have an even greater number of young muslims with no job prospects and little future.  This is a person very easy to radicalize and convince that America is the source of their problems. 

[Lunar]

The whole business of us becoming less dependent on Mideast oil is a chimera in the macroeconomic sense.  Say we don't buy Saudi oil and instead buy Russian, Mexican oil etc etc.  The Chinese/Japanese/French, take your pick, will just take our place and buy it. The oil commodities market is a global marketplace. We buy a lot of Mideast oil now because Exxon/mobil, Texaco, Shell etc make a business decision   that the oil is cheaper and the infrastructure is there and it is easier to get to market. If we don't buy from them someone will. 

If we get our oil from previously untapped sources, then this is not the case.

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Why do you think it's the wealthiest Muslim countries that have the most problems with governmental oppression and terrorism? Why is the most resource-wealthy state in South America, Venzuela, also a catastrophic failure and a regional threat to US security?  The problem IS this huge supply of resource-wealth.  A government that is funded out of exports rather than taxes is able to have almost unlimited power, including oppression (Arabs see the US as the benefactor for these regimes..which is part of the cause for terrorism). 

When a government gets its power from taxation, it uses that power to lift the populace out of poverty in order to perpetuate itself (the goal of elites in power).  The result of this is a diversified and successful business class elite that is able to and motivated to lobby on behalf of less governmental regulations [like governments cracking down on political dissent]. The Middle-East being able to skip this crucial step is why terrorists have funding and partly why they exist in the first place.

The exception to this resource-wealth rule is the UAE, which also coincidentially has an economy that is diversified and not dependent upon oil.  But even that society is not free BECAUSE of the reasons stated above.

The only true exception in history is the United States, which, due to a variety of unique factors, lacked an established elite to entrench itself with resources.

[patrick1]

The whole business of us becoming less dependent on Mideast oil is a chimera in the macroeconomic sense.  Say we don't buy Saudi oil and instead buy Russian, Mexican oil etc etc.  The Chinese/Japanese/French, take your pick, will just take our place and buy it. The oil commodities market is a global marketplace. We buy a lot of Mideast oil now because Exxon/mobil, Texaco, Shell etc make a business decision   that the oil is cheaper and the infrastructure is there and it is easier to get to market. If we don't buy from them someone will. 

If we get our oil from previously untapped sources, then this is not the case.

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Why do you think it's the wealthiest Muslim countries that have the most problems with governmental oppression and terrorism? Why is the most resource-wealthy state in South America, Venzuela, also a catastrophic failure and a regional threat to US security?  The problem IS this huge supply of resource-wealth.  A government that is funded out of exports rather than taxes is able to have almost unlimited power, including oppression (Arabs see the US as the benefactor for these regimes..which is part of the cause for terrorism). 

When a government gets its power from taxation, it uses that power to lift the populace out of poverty in order to perpetuate itself (the goal of elites in power).  The result of this is a diversified and successful business class elite that is able to and motivated to lobby on behalf of less governmental regulations [like governments cracking down on political dissent]. The Middle-East being able to skip this crucial step is why terrorists have funding and partly why they exist in the first place.

The exception to this resource-wealth rule is the UAE, which also coincidentially has an economy that is diversified and not dependent upon oil.  But even that society is not free BECAUSE of the reasons stated above.

The only true exception in history is the United States, which, due to a variety of unique factors, lacked an established elite to entrench itself with resources.

If we get our oil from previously untapped sources- the output will increase and the price will go down.  People would still buy Mideast oil because they would react in response to that.  My whole point is that if we don't buy Mideast oil someone will.  Chinese oil demand seems to be growing exponentially.  Furthermore, I don't think there is a "we" in this equation.  Oil corporations decide where to buy the oil not the U.S. government. 
  I tend to disagree with your statement that  the resource wealth is the problem-I think it is the misallocation of that resource wealth-A fact that Chavez is taking full advatage of.  In many of the Mid Eastern nations it is not even the misallocation that is the problem.  In Saudi Arabia there is a large middle class but there is a large problem of unemployment among the youth.  Rather than work menial jobs they import them and the Saudi's live off the stipend.  Therefore, you have a large segment of the youth adrift and they have already been radicalized by their theocratic schools. 
There are plenty of countries that are resource devoid that have their  problems with terrorism/repression. Egypt, Syria, Palestine are all relatively devoid of resources.  There are also many countries that have a "business class elite"these groups more often than not collaborate with the corrupt governments rather than lobby on behalf for more rights.  I think we can both agree that the lack of diversity is troubling in some Middle Eastern economies but this is a difficult undertaking that entails the complete transformation of their society and Muslims  do not seem very malleable lately.     

[Lunar]

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Sure, sure.  However, the US government has the ability to open up untapped sources.  Yes, it drives the oil price down (bad for terrorists) and makes our diplomatic position stronger in the Middle-East. 

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It's my humble opinion that this is why the lower class youth are adrift.  There was no infrastructure development that would have occured in a normal country.
 

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However, look at the countries which have already made huge successes out of themselves.  Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, etc.   Many of them are completely resource devoid, and the only one that is blessed with resources is the United States.

The entire Middle-East problem is intertwined with countries that aren't knee-deep in oil.   In addition, it's not my position that resource-scarcity solves all problems, merely that overflowing resources kills a country's ability to liberalize and contributes to the problems we see there.

[Hitchabrut]

If the Palestinians get a state, you do notice that it'll just be another free staging ground for terrorism, right?

[Lunar]

If the Palestinians get a state, you do notice that it'll just be another free staging ground for terrorism, right?

God, I hope nothing like that ever happens.  If Palestine were to become a breeding ground for terrorism, then maybe Israel would be attacked by the occasional suicide bomber every now and then.  Leave that peaceful terrorist-free zone as it is.

[GLOBAL DICTATOR]

The Palestinians, nor anyone else, has any right to any claim of land that Israel had or has. God gave it to them thousands of years ago. It was to be theirs forever.

Drive the Palestinians out or eliminate them completely. They've shown nothing but pure hatred and violence.

[phk]

Israel should burn the Palestinians in ovens.

Although I'd prefer to feed all these people to lions including Global Dictator.

[The Man From G.O.P.]

one word..... boom