.
I always thought Ted Herbert invented that word. It appears in the Dune series. If you've never read any of it, it's a sci-fi series. One of those long-ago-and/or-far-away stories. There's a planet that has an essential item. One group owns it, another group wants it, but neither of them have considered the small indigineous population. This small group of locals rise up and take it for themselves. Jihad is that their messianic leader calls their war against the exploiters.
This is not too far from the recent history of the middle East. Everybody knows about the Balfour declaration, directive, whatever, that the British used in 1917 to divide the region into the shape it's in now. In the early '70's, the people who lived there took control of the valuable item that came out of the ground. Or at least, their governments did. The people of the region still live a very poor quality life. The pool of people who are extremely rich because of oil is a little bit bigger than it was before, but it's still very small.
The reason I bring this up is because of a conversation I avoided getting into over the last weekend. It almost became a debate between two friends over the election. My friend appears to have simplified a complex issue to a single, simple solution; Barak Obama means peace. There was no point in entering into this discussion. It becomes two people shouting slogans at each other, and that is not productive.
This friend has this addy, so here's my side, as if they were listening. I'll start with my slogans. The invasion of Iraq was a good idea. George W. Bush is a good President. History will NOT compare him to Neville Chamberlain.
Whew! That sure felt good. I guess I can stop there, right? After all, as long as I shout my slogans, I've done enough, right? Oh, you want to know HOW I can be so insane. Well, all right. Since you're a friend.
Y'see, it seems that the poor, downtrodden people of the Middle East are sick of it. Their own governments don't care about them, and the people who provide those governments with the billions they build their palaces with don't seem to care either. As oppressed people inevitably do, pockets of them have become radicalized. They've begun to fight back. Their own governments have too tight a grip on things at home, but hey! It's actually easier to hit the people writing the big checks anyway. Let's fly some jets into their skyscrapers!
Now, let's face facts. If they do that often enough, it could hurt this country. No, really. I honestly think that there are people who think it's all right to let downtrodden people do anything they like. Who knows? Maybe this country is so corrupt that it deserves to die.
And . . . I think that's where I'll leave it. The premise is, this country deserves to die. The world will be better off without a United States of America.
