Suicide bomber kills 19 at medical school graduation ceremony.

[Fury]

As soon as we get off oil the middle east will cease to be relevant.

[shootfighter1]

Which begs the question...why aren't we transitioning more to nuclear and natural gas right now?  Wind, solar, electric all have barriers although they may be part of the solution.  We can use our own nuclear and natural gas now but this administration seems to be against it.   

[drkaje]

kaje, I would say no immediate interventions (like we are trying in Iraq and Afghanastan) will make a big difference.  Perhaps over time (decades/centuries) the middle east will change...but it's nothing I'd advise spending billions of our tax dollars on now.  Too many muslims are stuck in backward thinking and ideology and too many extremists are produced.

It's doubtful that even killing them (Somalis) would help. Other tribes of extremists would just reoccupy the land and start the same nonsense over again.

[Soul Crusher]

It's doubtful that even killing them (Somalis) would help. Other tribes of extremists would just reoccupy the land and start the same nonsense over again.

The problem is Islam! 

Do you see this crap going on in other poor parts of the world where Islam does not exist?

[drkaje]

The problem is Islam! 

Do you see this crap going on in other poor parts of the world where Islam does not exist?

If you killed everyone in Israel it would be repopulated and the fighting would begin anew.

The problem is fundamentalism and its followers rejection of and (in places like Somalia) by the modern world. There's no real way to impose democracy on tribal cultures. Add that to the simple fact that they live in a shithole with very little hope. It sucks ass but any little seed of hope schools, healthcare and other ideas might offer will likely be crushed under cultural inertia in places like that. It would take more than simply killing warlords for any real help or change to take place.

[George Whorewell]

If you really think about it, the death of European imperialism in the region is what helped spawn this mess.

If Britain had simply held onto its oil-- No palestine-- If civilized society had not taught these lunatics how to mine their own oil and had not invested the time or money into building this lopsided and absurd partnership with the Arabs ( one in which we pay to finance our own demise) none of this would be an issue. The Saudi royal family would be drinking oil and eating sand. Without us, they would be as dirt poor as the people they oppress and indoctrinate with their so called religion. 

Or if Europe and America had simply overrun the barbaric and incompetent desert thugs in Saudi Arabia, we would all be paying 1 dollar a gallon and Islamic fundamentalists would be relegated to blowing up bicycles in the middle of Mongolia. The only place on earth I can imagine that these islamists would have a stronghold is Afghanistan where all of their revenue would come from Heroin. 

Being nice and trying to make things global in the name of equality is a double edged sword.

[drkaje]

If you really think about it, the death of European imperialism in the region is what helped spawn this mess.

If Britain had simply held onto its oil-- No palestine-- If civilized society had not taught these lunatics how to mine their own oil and had not invested the time or money into building this lopsided and absurd partnership with the Arabs ( one in which we pay to finance our own demise) none of this would be an issue. The Saudi royal family would be drinking oil and eating sand. Without us, they would be as dirt poor as the people they oppress and indoctrinate with their so called religion. 

Or if Europe and America had simply overrun the barbaric and incompetent desert thugs in Saudi Arabia, we would all be paying 1 dollar a gallon and Islamic fundamentalists would be relegated to blowing up bicycles in the middle of Mongolia. The only place on earth I can imagine that these islamists would have a stronghold is Afghanistan where all of their revenue would come from Heroin. 

Being nice and trying to make things global in the name of equality is a double edged sword.

Aren't Great Britain and the UN responsible for the mess in Israel?

[George Whorewell]

Kinda-- but the fact of the matter is that Britain had the territory and rightfully could have kept it and told everyone to fuck off. Instead we now have Israel and the PLO/ Hamas.