Middle East Tension

The problems in the Middle East seem to be becoming much more intense in recent times; I have to ask myself, is this just a coincidence or does it have something to do with the invasion of Iraq? Funnily enough things were improving in Iran with a much more moderate regime in place before the Iraq “war”, however now that Iran basically has Americans as neighbours the regime has swung back to a more fundamentalist one; coincidence? No! I can fully understand why Iran is taking the stance that it is over the whole nuclear debate, after all Israel has nuclear weapons, and did some pretty dirty business to get them, so why should Iran not be in a position to defend itself. Ever since “the west” has had nuclear weapons we have been told that “we have to have a deterrent”; OK, if a “deterrent” is good enough for us why is it not good enough for Iran? Oh, I forgot, it’s a Muslim nation, and they must not be allowed to have a “deterrent” just in case they might give the secrets to terrorists! My response to that is “too late!”; we have ensured that this is already the case by allowing Israel to possess nuclear weapons, and they have been engaged in what is no more nor less than state sponsored terrorism for decades now. So, maybe Iran is right to be just a little worried about the whole situation on their doorstep; they have the Americans invading Iraq, and at the same time the Americans supporting Israel in its state sponsored terrorism, is it any wonder that Iran doesn’t trust America?

It seems to me that the Americans never learn from their mistakes. Let’s take a look at events; Vietnam, a disaster; Somalia, a disaster; involvement in Latin America, a disaster; and these to name just a few. What happens when the Americans bugger off and leave these people to their own devices? The answer is quite simple, things begin to improve, albeit slowly but improve they do. So what can we learn from this? Again a simple answer, that interference in the affairs of other nations leads to greater levels of dissent and the rise of fanatical, fundamentalist factions. The solution; stop interfering and sticking our noses in where we are not wanted! Oh, I forgot again, there is oil at stake, and we must have control over that mustn’t we? There is also the case that we must have nations that we are able to exploit, for whatever reason, in this world of increasing globalisation. If you want to know what the march of capitalism/consumerism does to people you would do worse than take a look at Arthur Millers “Death of a Salesman”; there is a wonderful line in this play which says it all: “You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit!”