The Logic Off Topic list

As someone who was indirectly affected by the Gulf War (my dad 
and my best friend were US Army sent to Saudi Arabia), I have 
always believed that we should have left that region as soon as 
the campaign was over. We wore out our welcome a long time 
ago. Not only does the Muslim /Arab world think so, so do 
members of our own government. Please don't start with the 
"well, we're there at the request of the Saudis" BS,either. 

This is one area where I tend to agree with the Arab world on; 
We should've "got while the gettin' was good". 

As far as the Israeli / Paletinian conflict is concerned, I'm still 
waiting for those Muslim critics of US policy in the MidEast to 
finally realize that at the end of the day, it's up to Isreal and the 
Paletinians to solve that conflict, and as long as they both hate 
each other as much as they do, no amount of US or other 
countries' intervention will bring peace to that region. 

The best chance that Israel had in attaining peace was ended by 
the bullet of a Jewish extremist, not a Muslim one (the 
assaination of Yitzak Rabin). Netanyahu , and now Sharon (two 
of Israel's most fundamentalist-thinking mainstream politicians, 
IMO) just made matter worse. Coupled by the fact that the 
Palestinians are pretty much letting Hamas and Hezbollah 
dictate their policy, and you have the recipie for mini 
Armageddon, something that no amount of US intervention will 
be able to fix. This is why I don't buy the claim from many Arabs / 
Muslims that US policy is somehow at fault for the current 
situation in the Middle East.

On CNN the other day, they interviewed two Arab journalists 
regarding the current situation, and one of them made the point:
" In the Arab world, there is an astonishing lack of self reflection, 
self criticism, and self analysis when it comes to the problems of 
the region. Many of the issues that we tend to blame the West 
(the US)for, we could easliy solve ourselves, but somehow we 
choose not to." 

Something to think about.

Charles