"Well since you still live in Texas, and not Mexico, let's leave your ideals for a utopean world in dreamland, for now."
Quote:
One, the combined wealth of the world’s three richest people is greater than the total gross domestic product of the 48 poorest countries. Two, in 1960, the average income of the richest 20 per cent of the world’s population was 30 times higher than that of the poorest 20 per cent. By 1995, this had become 82 times greater (United Nations Development Programme Report 1998). Three, in 1970, the gap between the per capita GDP of the richest country, the United States of America ($5070) and of the poorest, Bangladesh ($57) was 88:1. In 2000, the gap between the richest, Luxembourg ($45,917) and the poorest, Guinea Bissau ($161) was 267:1. Four, a study of 77 countries (with 82 per cent of the world’s population) showed that between the Fifties and the Nineties, inequalities rose in 45 countries and fell in 16 countries.
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http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/...inequgains.htm
So long as I'm living in America, why should I be complaining, is that it? But I'm not talking about waking up in an utopian dreamland, I'm talking about advancing humanity in a positive direction. You can call it a dream; I call it a goal.
But I'm wandering off-topic. Quite frankly, those who seek the complete obliteration of the state of Israel are human scum. Their minds are twisted by lies and their lives filling with enough indignities that they think their own death is meritous if it kills enough of the innocents they believe are their enemy. They bring NOTHING to the table for humanity.
As you've said a hundred times, Israel are doing the best of any nation in the region. I'm not contesting that. All I'm saying the state of Israel isn't blameless in the racial/religious/class struggle over there. Yet I'd have a hard time believing the heads of Israel intentionally sought out a path of racial or religious oppression, though I suppose class oppression is somewhat inevitable in any modern wealth-driven society.
But violently forcing their own populace out of the contested areas is probably a worse move than encouraging them to build there in the first place. In this case the IDF does not seem to be a force of racial oppression, but rather just a force of oppression. I don't know for sure, but I'm just guessing the folks in these settlements aren't rich and influential. Maybe this is what it will take for Islamic extremists to wake up to the fact that people are using religion to manipulate them to irreligious ends. If so, then I'll eat my words, and Israel will have pulled off an amazing feat, although I fear we're treading back into dreamland at this point.
More to the point, my only genuine negative opinions of Israel are regarding the military (and even then it's absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it is a Jewish military - the problems are inherent to any military authority and one need only try to tally the amount of destruction caused there by American forces in the last half century). Based on my very limited knowledge and watching a film of a meeting between IDF leaders and PA security leaders from around 2003, I don't really think the IDF brass were particularly interested in any peace process. Maybe they were too cynical to think there can ever be peace, maybe I'm completely wrong - I dunno. I don't know what the best solution is, but I'm pretty sure the military solution is one of escalation and destruction. But escalation targets the symptoms of the problem, not the sources. Next year will mark 40 years since the 6 Day War. How much better is the situation in the Middle East, in terms of reaching a real, lasting peace? Is a lasting peace even a realistic goal?
And if you can't get past the i-mockery induced sarcasm that tends to seep from my posts or if you just honestly think I'm bringing nothing to this discussion, please don't bother to reply, as I can think of a million more productive ways to spend my time than trying to have a serious discussion with you on a fucking internet forum attached to a humor website.