Who Wants Peace?

I do. But obviously it would take a miracle for the entire world to experience peace at the same time. It's all relative.
And for the Middle East, let's just say at this point it's just not going to happen for a while.
I firmly believe that if someone wants something so bad, they'll find the strength and the courage within themselves to achieve it even if it means having to put up or shut up.
We all know the conflicts in the Middle East open up huge (HUGE) cans of worms and it appears that each time a country steps up to get involved whether to help or attempt to forge resources for economic or political reasons, it never achieves anything relatively positive. Everyone is always viewed from an extremist point of view. Seems like a majority of Arabs today feel like they've been served up an eternal lemon of life and they do not want to make lemonade. They just want to kill anyone who comes in their way. It feels like pages from the bible have been exhumed and reenacted into history again. I mean come one already.
Take this recent editorial from Shimon Peres. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2007/06/08/2003364361
Good, rational commentary. (I couldn't agree more on the part about Iran's motives to increase influence in the Middle East. ) But I bet if a non-Jewish Arab or Anti Israel were to comment, this piece would get reamed. It's like a dead-end marriage. Constant bickering and no one comes close to an amicable agreement. The goal towards peace is gone. Point is, biases are starting to build up. Even I find myself these days fighting to suppress opinions that border on prejudice against Arabs because the hardcore ones have so strongly built their own bigoted views on Americans. I'm not perfect but at least I make an effort not to act on them. All this madness about how the U.S. has been getting unnecessarily involved in the Middle East may be true but I think it's secondary to the real reason that alot of Arabs are blinding themselves with old grudges. And don't get me to elaborate further on sectarian conflicts. That's a whole other blog entry to struggle with. The frightening conclusion is that achieving peace seems to mean an entirely different thing in the Middle East.

Money well spent.NOT

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070525/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_violence

This is absolutely money well spent. (Am I being sarcastic?) For forty million dollars we get to help a country that barely has a stance on what to do about its government. Who might possibly turn on us while part of its constituency covertly aligns with Iran and Hezbollah. Who as most people dont want to realize is a country that is at the brink of yet another civil war. Should we really help? I hope enough people are saved from this. And I hope that for once, the U.S. doesnt get reamed for getting involved after arms are shipped. We have enough problems to deal with and we can't save the world. Sometimes you just have to let others fight and squeeze out all the rage they have inside and hope you don't get wiped out while helping in the process.

Iraq's Sectarian Divide

No one wants to see the sectarian divide that erodes Iraq's road for peace. Take a look at the map posted on CNN.http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/iraq.transition/

(click on the link on this page called Baghdad's sectarian divide) Doesnt this give you dejavu on similar divisions in Lebanon during last summer's war between Israel?

At this point, I think no matter what the U.S., Britain or any stereotypically branded Western country does (thank you radical Islam), there is no recognizable period of stability for a majority of countries in the Middle East these days that signify that they do want democracy. There will always be this terribly frustrating mix of cultural dichotomies, religious beliefs and archaic traditions that plague countries like Iraq, Lebanon and Iran to name a few. So why should the U.S. stay in Iraq? As an American I feel proud knowing that I live in a democracy and that despite all the prejudices that are still evident in this country, a majority DO have an awareness that things are far better here than they are in the Middle East. I think it is downright unfair to convince Americans to believe that they're fighting for Iraqi people's rights to a fair democracy when these people are still closely tied to nations who continue to undermine their desire to achieve freedom. It's like treating a victim who still cherishes the victim mentality and uses it for their own benefit. One minute they're friends to the U.S. and the next the U.S. becomes this evil force that invaded their country for political gain. Everyone is scum while they remain the victims.