From: Kai Becker (kmb@kai-m-becker.de)
Date: Tue Dec 18 2001 - 05:45:17 MST
Am Dienstag, 18. Dezember 2001 02:54 schrieb Spike Jones:
> Consider "good relations with the west" as a resource.
> [...] Destroying good relations, especially
> with those neighbors who have a lot of money and power, is not
> in the best interest of any nation, analogous to torching one's
> own oil fields.
I agree and would even extend this to "good relations lead to
interdependence" and "interdependence prevents war, because everyone would
lose more than he could win". If you have the choice, it's always better to
invest into infrastructure, agriculture and development than into weapons
and destruction.
This would mean, that at least the arabian/palestinian activists believe
that they win more when they lose their life, their houses and their
families. What could make them believe this? Desperation? The feeling that
noone will really help them? Probably. If this is the case, then this has
to be solved first.
> So let the Middle Eastern nations do as the Jews have done,
> send some of their brightest and best to Europe, to America,
> to Asia.
I think this is a very good idea. It could be too late, though. The terror
pilots of 9-11 have lived and studied in Europe for years (in Hamburg i.e.,
<100 miles from here *shiver*). One even was born in Germany and has never
lived in the middle east. So, there must be a mechanism by which the
anti-western, islamic-fundamentalist meme set wins over an already
established western meme set and I really would like to know how this works.
> I have a vision of the Christian, the Arab and the Jew sitting
> in the park together and commiserating that their grandsons
> are far more interested in mastering the subtleties of nintendo
> than the bible, the koran or the torah. May it be so.
And may this day not be too far away.
Kai
-- == Kai M. Becker == kmb@kai-m-becker.de == Bremen, Germany == "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced"
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