World Domination, Terrorism, And Other Fun Stuff.

[VooMan]

Okay, I've never really been one to discuss religion, politics, etc... but all this lunacy going on in the world these days is getting on my nerves. I try to read the news as often as I can, but I never really paid attention to much of anything before 9/11 so I feel like I'm behind the curve. I know there are two sides to every story, so I would like to try to better understand the events that have brought us to where we are today...

Here goes:

Question 1: Iraq - We seem to have shifted our focus from al-Qaida to Iraq. Are we hard up for news from the middle east, or have we been trying to deal with Saddam for years and things have finally come to a head? Some people believe we have lost our focus. Do you think that's the case?

Question 2: North Korea - As I understand it they ignored a treaty they had with the U.S. and have been working on building nuclear weapons while we send them free oil? Am I getting this right? If that's the case what are we doing about it? What can we do about it? And why is it okay for us to have nuclear weapons and not them? Who are we to decide what they can and can't do?

Question 3: Is all this just about oil or is there more to the story? Isn't that a two way street? America's only interested in oil, but then again aren't the Arabs getting rich off us "infidels?" If we're so horrible why do business with us?

Question 4: What is going on with the rest of the middle east? Saudi Arabia helped us in the Gulf War, allowing us to set up shop in their country... Bin Laden thought this was the worst thing they could have done allowing us on their holy land. Saudi Arabia didn't seem to mind. Who in the middle east can we consider friends? Who can we consider enemies? Who do you think is acting like our friend when in actual fact they are our enemies?

Question 5: What is the deal with the Palestinians vs. Israel? What is the Palestinian's argument? What is Israel's argument? Why does the U.S. side with Israel?

Question 6: It seems like there are a lot of Americans who feel that we deserve the current situation we're in because of things the U.S. has done in the past. What have we done, and to whom? Does the U.S. stick it's nose where it doesn't belong? Have we stabbed the people of the middle east in the back?

Question 7: We helped Afghanistan in the 80's, but then we left and didn't help them rebuild. So they hate us... If we didn't do anything to help they would hate us... Is the U.S. in a no-win situation or did we really screw them over?

There are some very well educated and well informed people here in the gumbo, and although I spend most of my time lurking I thought it would be interesting to pose these questions. I have tried to make them as broad as possible and I have only one request: I am looking for people to help me better understand different sides of the issues. I really don't want this to evolve into a bickering session where we end up bashing each other for our political views. "Those people are fundamentalist wackos," "Democrats suck," and "Dubbya is a moron" are not really the answers I'm looking for. There are people from all over the world who post and lurk here and I would like to learn something. Hell, I might even start a thread that lingers around for a while.

Thanks,
Andrew