You're 1/3rd right. Yes it would trigger war with the Arab nation. But then we'd control the world's oil supply. And by the time the rest of the world was ready to do anything about it, the military would already be firmly established in the region.
Important Point: The military would never be firmly established there, unless the locals wanted it that way.
FWIW, don't forget about Russian, Mexican, Venezualan, African (etc.) oil. Non-ME oil amounts for 1/3 of known reserves. And you could rightly call the result WWIII.
Achebe, That was freakin hilarious. 'standez here for un moment...' I love that! Damn frogs. Batman, There is zero chance of WWIII coming out of Nomars suggestion. There is no other large power that would tango with the US militarily right now. Every Arab nation could unite and Israel would stomp on them, much less the US.
I wholeheartedly agree that we have the might to take over the Arab nation, if we are prepared to kill millions of Arab people. I also agree that our oil problem would be solved. But I think we're gonna need an even less "compassionate" conservative in charge to kill off all the people who will oppose the American takeover of virtually all Arab countries (and to stave off opposition by most of the civilized world). What's Napoleon up to these days?
I am not a proponent of Nomar's plan. But I think you're being chicken little when you talk about WWIII. NO MAJOR POWER would take up arms against the US right now over the Middle East.
Hayes, I'm calling the US versus the Arab nation WWIII. I don't think any other nation needs to take up arms to qualify it. That confrontation alone would qualify. This isn't just my position -- it's the position of various ex-Bush Sr. cabinet members. We don't have to call it WWIII though -- we could come up with a groovy name like Operation Erase Brownie. But the second that we try and turn Israel into an American controlled police state (it will never happen by the way), we would be at war with every single Arab country. Russia, China, France, Germany or whoever else might not be ballsy enough to fight us over it, but they absolutely wouldn't back us and they would cease to be our allies. England, too. It really doesn't matter and I can't believe we're still debating a scenario which is about as likely as us going to war with Mars. There is no US official, past or present, who would go for us "stabilizing" Israel militarily because they all know what would happen -- including suicide bombers in every American mall, church and school. It's a non-issue though because no one's stupid enough to let it happen.
There is only so much we could handle at one time, and we would be spread extremely thin if we were to take that route. Remember that should we go in there to try to help resolve their issues, we would be running a huge risk of pissing off all the Muslims in that region. A good number of the problems we are fighting today are a result of us taking sides. Look how much the relations with Saudi Arabia have fallen in the past 10 years. Have we done anything to them? No. They are pissed b/c we are involved with what is happening with the Israelis. And that is just based on the position we have taken (no any actions). Should we decide to attempt to help out with force, all of the Muslim nations would turn on us in an instant. Furthermore, We will find it quite difficult to find other countries willing to lend their resources to help us restore peace thus making us that much more vulnerable.
Oh, OK. I thought World War Three would by definition include, uh, other major powers, or more than one region, or some big ass conflict. A big ass whuppin does not make a world war. TheHorns, The Saudis don't give a damn about the Palestinians. They want to export their particular brand of Wasabi so they can dominate the world's suchi bars. Its the Japanese that need to watch out.
Bah. You guys are ninnies. I have one Lefty correction, though. Let's have the UN occupy Israel/Palestine. And let's make sure that in addition to the Americans, French, Germans, Japanese, and Swedish... that a few Arab commanders are put in positions of control. Not too much, of course, since there's no way in hell you can count on them to be objective regarding the issue... but enough to make it look better than a Western intrustion into regional autonomy.
You know what's really strange though is that you favor the US enforcing peace militarily and that has worked so well for the Israelis. I just know Hamas would respect our military so much more than Israel's. They love America!
In case you missed it, the one thing that has kept the Israelis in check has been pressure from the UN (particularly the US). With that pressure gone and with the military might of the US military, I'm confident that the terrorists could be rooted out and that peace could be established.
Or alternatively, if the US kept Israel in check, that would be agreeable to Hummus? Yes? Damn Palestinians and their hummus. Saudis with their wasabi. WHAT IS NEXT PEOPLE?
The Israelis are in check? I think there are about a billion Muslims around the world who'd disagree with that slanted viewpoint. The only pressure we have is the $3billion in aid that we hand over and until the removal of that funding is a serious threat then Israel can do pretty much what it wants. All we do with our posturing is allow Israel to get out of sticky situations that Sharon is too stupid to avoid. You're so confident we can root our their terrorists and yet Al-Zawahiri and bin Laden (remember them?) are still running around the world making tapes for the media. George Tenet says an Al-Qaeda attack on US soil is a lock and that there are still sleeper cells in this country. We have a global war on terrorism, an ongoing occupation and reconstruction of Afghanistan, and an upcoming $200 billion waste of a war in Iraq while we cut taxes at home because that's what everyone wants. We have enough to do without getting US troops blown up by suicide bombers in Israel.
It's not a slanted viewpoint at all. The fact is that without pressure from the US and the UN that the Israeli government would have ended this situation already via military might. The US and our allies have cautioned Israel to not take such action and to this point they have heeded that call. It's puzzling that you can't see this. But they haven't. I wonder why? Different situation. We damned well KNOW where the Palestinian suicide bombers reside. We don't even know what hemisphere bin Laden is in...much less any specific coordinates. Any attempt to analogize the two groups is ridiculous. We already know how you feel about Iraq. If you're so damned warm and fuzzy to them then why don't you serve as a weapons inspector? I'm sure you won't find anything. So now that it's getting tough it's time to abdicate the responsibility that President Carter (and every President since) took on for the US? Very strange notion indeed.
