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Your view on recent Middle East crisis

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Giancarlo:
This is getting very interesting indeed...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060724/pl_nm/mideast_france_dc_1;_ylt=Am04UjkXVt7_6iSnfK4bEW4UvioA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

PARIS (Reuters) - France and the United States worked together to oust
Syria from Lebanon and, despite tactical differences due to divergent agendas in the region, they agree who is to blame for the current crisis -- Hizbollah.

The born-again allies, their rift over Iraq a thing of the past, want to isolate and disarm the Shi'ite Muslim group, whose backers Iran and Syria underscore the wider strategic issues at play in the latest round of Middle East conflict.

Israel began its assault on Lebanon after Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12. Some 373 people have since died in Lebanon. At least 37 Israelis have been killed in Hizbollah rocket attacks and clashes.

Both Washington and Paris have accused Hizbollah of provoking the Jewish state and leaving Lebanon -- a French-speaking Middle East state with historical ties to France -- to bear the brunt of Israel's riposte.

"The Americans have never been interested in Lebanon as such, (they) have always reacted regarding Syria and regarding Israel," said Olivier Roy, head of research at the France-based CNRS institute.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060724/ap_on_re_mi_ea/rice_24;_ylt=Ao3SMyLHSdVg52Mhfcrijc0UvioA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

BEIRUT, Lebanon - In a surprise visit to a battered Beirut, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice praised the beleaguered prime minister of Lebanon on Monday for his courage in struggling to contain the fighting between the Hezbollah militia and Israel.

ekeby:
Some years back I saw an interesting little story--just a paragraph, really--in the NY Times. It said that a United Nations statistical study had found that the one constant in all military conflicts was that the participating countries had a large population of unmarried males.

Trust me, they weren't talking about a lot of gay men. The statistics referred to populations that were too economically depressed to support new marriages and thereby more children.

I think military conflicts are always about what population number one has and about what population number two wants that population number one has. The rationale for conflict is always embellished with religion and moral righteousness, and that makes figuring out what is true and what is not true very difficult to determine.

I know that might sound off topic, but that's the bottom line of what I think about the current Israel slash Lebanon slash Palestine situation.

I'm glad to see the question raised here. Just goes to show that BetterMost people are a little better; they're at least thinking and talking about the situation. The average American has very little understanding of their country's foreign policy, particularly in the middle east and specifically in Israel and Palestine. This is why our government-in-power can do pretty much whatever it wants wherever it wants to. Unfortunately, the rest of the world doesn't know this.

The only thing that will get the average American to turn their attention to the middle east is the rising price of gas. That's why I'd like to see it go sky high--the sooner the better. Clearly, people getting killed by the hundreds every day means next to nothing.

Back to the unmarried male situation. Brace yourselves. China's birthrate has been 2 to 1 male to female for the last 20 years, and they will soon have about a billion unmarried males.

delalluvia:

--- Quote from: ekeby on July 24, 2006, 10:42:08 pm ---Back to the unmarried male situation. Brace yourselves. China's birthrate has been 2 to 1 male to female for the last 20 years, and they will soon have about a billion unmarried males.

--- End quote ---

Yep, and they're all going hungry for food and women.  For patriarchal societies to get hold of modern technology, then be limited in birth rates to 1 child, they will always choose boys because the men will grow up to 'take care of the parents when they are old'.  Unfortunately, their short-sightedness didn't take into account that almost EVERYone because of their culture thinks the same way, so no one chooses to give birth - and allow to live - any daughters for their sons to marry, so the grown men will have to leave their parents to go find a wife and probably never come back, so they've pretty much screwed themselves.

Giancarlo:
Holy... someone really went through this whole thread and wiped out a lot of posts, including many posts I have made. That was totally unjustified. I think I'm just going to leave this forum because of that. I'm almost thinking of deleting my account and not coming back. That was such a waste of my time just to see them all deleted like that. There were like three or four pages in this thread. What a waste of my god damn time... >:( Don't think I didn't spend time writing some of my insights, which are now GONE.

JennyC:

--- Quote from: Giancarlo on July 25, 2006, 01:13:17 am ---Holy... someone really went through this whole thread and wiped out a lot of posts, including many posts I have made. That was totally unjustified. I think I'm just going to leave this forum because of that. I'm almost thinking of deleting my account and not coming back. That was such a waste of my time just to see them all deleted like that. There were like three or four pages in this thread. What a waste of my god damn time... >:( Don't think I didn't spend time writing some of my insights, which are now GONE.

--- End quote ---
Giancarlo,

I am surprised to hear that your posts have been deleted.  I read this thread frequently (for obvious reasons. :) )  I didn't notice any posts from anyone (including yours) have been deleted.  Can you please raise this issue to the moderator?  We don't want to see any posts (as long as it's not personal attack) being deleted, regardless whether or not we agree with each other's opinion.  Is it possible that you were thinking another thread (e.g. Energy/Resource Saving Tips thread, which has 3 to 4 pages posts)? Let's research what is going on a little bit more.

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