General says Mideast wars may last 50 years
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071101/...id_middle_east
Gen. Abizaid (ret.): The rise of Sunni extremism, burgeoning Shiite extremism, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the world economy's dependency on Mideast oil will keep Americans in the Middle East for a long time, he said.
Do you suppose any of these are good reasons for being at war?
Why is Shiite extremism burgeoning? It wouldn't have anything to do with U.S. presence there, would it?
"I'm not saying this is a war for oil, but I am saying that oil fuels an awful lot of geopolitical moves that political powers may have there," Abizaid said. "And it is absolutely essential that we in the United States of America figure out how, in the long run, to lessen our dependency on foreign energy."
Nice metatphor, general.
Re: General says Mideast wars may last 50 years
America needs a revolution. Cut down all the special interest groups and cleanse out the government. Bogus elections will not help.
Re: General says Mideast wars may last 50 years
No, they're not good reasons to wage a war.
Ron Paul has been saying this repeatedly. I just hope the next president (if it isn't Dr. Paul) is smart enough to realize that the only reason they attack us is because we're there. Bin Laden has said it himself that the reason he attacked us, is because we stationed troops on the sacred soil of the Saudi Arabia. We leave and they leave us alone.
Re: General says Mideast wars may last 50 years
Hypothetically...would an Arab invasion of Isreal by Iran, Syria, or a group like Hamas or Hezbollah justify a full scale war in the Middle East?
Re: General says Mideast wars may last 50 years
MC - I'm surprised you're dis-ing this retired general. If he was invited to speaking at Carnegie Mellon, he must be a liberal. That campus could be one of the most liberal places in America.
He sounds like a disenfranchised ex-military guy me. He's calling for less military and more diplomacy.
How could anyone argue with that?
Re: General says Mideast wars may last 50 years
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ground&Pound 
MC - I'm surprised you're dis-ing this retired general.
I wasn't dissing the general, only questioning the justifications he gave for war in the middle east.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ground£
[Being] invited to speaking at Carnegie Mellon, he must be a liberal. That campus could be one of the most liberal places in America.
I know it as an college for engineers. In any event, your claim that it's "liberal" is meaningless to me, and irrelevant to the subject, unless you're trying to start an exercise here to classify everything or everyone as liberal or conservative. Maybe you could start a new thread.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ground£
He's calling for less military and more diplomacy.
How could anyone argue with that?
I wasn't.
Re: General says Mideast wars may last 50 years
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ground&Pound Hypothetically...would an Arab invasion of Isreal by Iran, Syria, or a group like Hamas or Hezbollah justify a full scale war in the Middle East?
Since we have treaties with Israel then we would be bound to come to their aid if they were attacked. Then again, we would be part of a U.N. force in that hypothetical. However, I can't remember the last time Israel was invaded by a foreign force. Actually, I think it's Israel that's been doing the invading since their "independence" in 1948. Who they won their independence from is still something I've never been able to figure out.
Personally, I think the creation of Israel as a country by outside parties, i.e. league of nations/United Nations as well as many of the other countries that were "created" out of the Ottoman empire was a mistake that we're still paying for today.
By paying I mean both in difficult diplomatic relationships and in the billions (maybe trillions) it has cost us to support our arbitrary decisions after the two world wars.
Re: General says Mideast wars may last 50 years
The creation of Isreal is certainly a topic that historians will be studying and debating for years to come.
I personally hoped the US hadn't invade Iraq without full UN support and certainly hope we never commit to another military operation without the UN's backing.
Our Iraq invasions (whether justified or not) made us look arogant , agressive and empirialistic. Having GW and Cheney as the face of America only made matters worse.
But, thats water under the bridge. We did invade and it is what it is.
