A Sudden Realization

Some people don't like each other. Wow. What an amazing revelation.

I think this is part of many of the problems that we see in other parts of the world, never-mind inside our own back-yard. When you have a groups of people who have gone to war with one another, fought against one another, and killed one another for generations, you can't force them to get together and deal with each other fairly, at least not right away.

An example: My brother and I were at each other's throats until I left for college. Didn't matter that we had to live with one another, that just made it worse, dealing with all of the petty slights and fights. Then I leave, move to another state, and come home rarely. Now we get along. We could not have done this unless we got away from each other.

This is what we are dealing with in Iraq, just a hundred times worse. Three ethnic groups with a habit of fighting each other, each wanting to be the one in the top position. You're not going to be able to deal civilly with a man when you know he's just waiting for an excuse to oppress you. We don't talk about a one-state solution in Israel and Palestine because we know they can't get along. Makes only slightly more sense to endorse a one-state solution in Iraq, because they have more value in their ethnicity then their country. But we have the problem of resources. Iraq has oil wealth, but how much besides? The area has been farmed out over the course of human civilization, so they need something to allow them to join in this global economy and not become a poor third world nation, which will make for more fighting.

We have a problem, and perhaps a difficult to find solution in the near-term. I can't prescribe a balm for this situation, but I can predict a future solution: Old Europe, or the EU. The EU is perhaps one of our most traditional places of vicious in-fighting and wars. But with the time of calm in Western Europe, they were able to deal with themselves, and stand against an external threat, first in the form of NATO against the Russians, and now the EU against the United States (economically, I mean). We need to give them an external pressure to have them cooperate with each other, and it needs to be a voluntary thing. We have to give them the ability to stand apart from each other so they realize that they need to stand together.

Preaching into the AEther,
Miles