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Sunday, December 5, 2010

My Day

"There is only one way in which those of us who live can repay the dead who have given their utmost for the cause of liberty and justice. They died in the hope that, through their sacrifice, an enduring peace would be built and a more just world would emerge for humanity."
-Eleanor Roosevelt


I wonder if these words are still true today, for the men and women who have given their lives in the middle east. Are we fighting for an enduring peace? Is such a thing in that region of the world even possible? An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. When will the cycle of violence end? I can tell you one thing, it won't happen without a Palestinian state. Israel keeps crossing the limits of acceptable in the eyes of everyone, even the United States has condemned their settlement expansions, and yet we continue to support them. And the terrorists that Israel has to fight will continue to fight and hate with such fervor that while at the same time disagreeing with Israel's policy of expansion it's hard to argue that they should concede anything, when history has taught us nothing if not that they will continue to be terrorized even if they chose to give back territory for a Palestinian state. Everyone is working at odds against themselves, not to mention everyone else. Until we're willing to forgive past wrongs and work together, there will always be conflict. I see both sides of this argument. I do not, however, see a solution. The idea that (and I'm going to generalize here) the Arabs will stop hating the Jews for stealing their land, persecuting them, and forcing them from their homes and that the Jews will stop hating the Arabs for attacking and terrorizing them is pure fantasy. It's never going to happen. How depressing.

So what are we fighting for? We are the United States of America. We need to completely extinguish our dependance on foreign oil so we have no personal investment in the region and let them sort it out themselves, to their benefit or detriment. Basically, our goal needs to be to butt out and make it possible for it not to be our problem. This isn't WWII. A little isolationism would do us good.

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