If I could summarise! Apologies to @danforth.
The religion element is irrelevant. All religions have interpretations. Many people in the Middle East are unable to arrive at a compromise unlike in the West where we tolerate different interpretations of Christianity.
The Arab world holds other values that are outside the understanding of the West.
We twitter on about human rights and democracy but they beleive in strength and power.
If we meddle then we can expect nutjobs to hide their towels (headwear) and shoot or bomb some places in the West.
It would make more sense to:
1 - tell anyone going there they are on their own
2 - allow people out but put them in refugee camps until we are sure they are no risk
3 - let the local factions shoot each other on their own land
4 - when the new dictators are in place send the refugees back
5 - just buy stuff off them and stop trying to sell them ideologies they clearly don't want
6 - be nice until they are not nice to us, what they do to their own is not our problem
7 - when they are not nice in the West just provide them with what they understand, Heaven
Simples
Don't panic, this is fairly short!
It's certainly a fair summary of what we should do now. A day or so earlier, it would have saved me a lot of typing.:Biggrin2:
I can't agree about "the religion element is irrelevant", and it's really why we can't begin to understand them.
It's largely irrelevant to us, but it's the foundation of their power structures, as it was here until fairly recently.
It's mandatory and creates divisions from birth. A child is never allowed freedom of thought, never mind speech.
They're put through the same process their parents were, as soon as they are able to understand anything.
A steady drip feed, aimed at creating an obedient little soldier or supporter, for one side or the other,
and the system is not going to let you live outside it. Even if you escape physically, the damage of a closed mind
goes with you. By the time you have access to external sources (if ever) they make little impression on your mindset,
and even an instruction from your elected government needs the approval of your unelected religious leader.
It's really what all religions aim for, the ultimate faith school. After food, water, and now weapons, this life
doesn't matter, all suffering will be rewarded in some promised afterlife, and if you can kill unbelievers in the
process, you get a few extra privileges. That's the core belief that makes coexistance impossible to, or with them.
Fortunately they're preoccupied with killing each other, they only have short term unity against outsiders.
Beyond getting our own house in order, there's little we can do that doesn't involve a very large smoking crater.
I would have a few sleepless nights, but I'm sure it would pass. Given time they'll create one elsewhere,
with "nuclear research" ticking away in the background while attention is diverted.
They know what the inevitable response would be, just as Hamas did, and they just don't seem to care.
The scale would be vastly different, but that's of no consequence when you've been indoctrinated to the point
where you can't even contemplate the possibility that this life is all your ever going to get.
They can't all think like that, and we don't how far the research has progressed, but their ultimate aim is clear.
How much longer before the question will be, how many maniacs does it take to push a button?
That's the food of sleepless nights, and hands wrung to pulp. : grim :
