The Middle East.. Bitter Assholes

Let's take a little trip down memory lane, shall we?

About 600 years ago the world was a much different place. The new world had yet to be made public knowledge. The concept of a flat earth was the accepted truth. The people who did trade between Europe and Asia had to pass through what is now known as the Middle East. This was a good time for these people. Trade was always coming through since land routes were faster than routes by sea. Those guides who knew the safest routes were prized by all. The leaders of the cities in the middle of trade routes were rich for they could tax as much as they wish in return for safety and supplies. The people of this region were the center of the known world and they had everything they could ever want at their fingertips.

Go forward about a century. A European explorer looking for a better trade route between Europe and India sets out across the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus does not find a passage to India but instead sets the wheels in motion for Trans-Atlantic exploration and settlement. Any concern had by the Arab world of Europeans finding a faster router by sea is squashed with this discovery. Trade routes through their regions are unaffected and life goes on.

Another 125 years later, The Mayflower and its passengers came into play. They settled down in the new world and began the foundations of what was to become one of the most powerful nations in the world. The Arab world was not impressed. While resources were being transferred to this grand new design, trade between Europe and Asia still went through the Arab world without deviation.

Ahead again another 150 years. These new colonies have gained independence from England and a new nation is formed. This new nation (divisible) offers both Freedom and Manifest Destiny as it begins to expand and evolve over the course of the next 125 years. Trade with the Arab world diminishes a little but does not dwindle as there is still no better route to India despite expansion across the North American continent.

Enter 1900. During the next 50-60 years big changes are going to affect the world. Man is going away from horses and movie to trains and automobiles. Man is learning to fly and can now travel large distances. Plans for a canal connecting oceans at Panama first drawn up in the early 16th century are now coming to pass. Mass production is bringing the future faster and more efficiently. Suddenly, the world demographic shifts. The Arab world is no longer the center of attention. Trade routes no longer require the Arab world for assistance and since the Arab's never sought a reason to evolve their own economy beyond that which was handed to them by travellers from outside their lands, things go downhill FAST. Arab countries that do not find oil are forced to rely on other forms of income. Some turn to opium which has been outlawed in America since 1875. But those wihtout the benefit of adequate means of economic stability fall apart.

Now religion has taken a grip upon the desperate peoples of this land. It is telling them that America is to blame for generations of their own sloth. It is telling them that killing Americans will acquire great wealth for them in heaven. It is telling them that if they aren't getting handouts anymore from other countries that they have every right to commit terrorist attacks upon them instead of actually working hard to create a better place for themselves in this world.

The Arab World is now a wrathful place that has been forged in greed and tempered in sloth. Its only hope for salvation lies NOT in some bible-thumping, altar boy jumping religion, but in making it face its own mistakes and forcing them to deal with their own problems. The only real solution is for the Arab World to be quarantined and isolated from the rest of the world until such time as they can make a real contribution to the global community again and able stand on its own two feet without resorting to violence.

As for The Demagogue formerly known as Mad King George. Getting Saddam Hussein out of Iraq may have been a good intention... BUT... he did it for the wrong reasons, in the wrong way and at the wrong time. He has taken a once great nation and turned it into another wrathful weapon forged in greed, tempered by sloth and willing to take the easy road and attack anythng that moves rather than listening and thinking before acting.

In many ways Bush has made the US just as bad as the Arab world is now.

..and in just four years too. Imagine what he could do with eight.