The true face of the Middle East...a brilliant analysis...

[Oswald Bastable]

Outside of a few urban centers in the Middle East where the elites start the revolutions that end up stringing them from the gallows, life is cheap and worthless. Men kill their wives and daughters over petty suspicions. Clans murder each other in vicious brawls. Wedding celebrations begin with firing guns into the air and end with bodies on the ground.

Everything is worth more than people. A camel has value. A pickup truck has value. A smartphone has value. All these things are hard to make.

People are easy to make.

The birth rates are high. Everywhere there are too many people. Too many sons to inherit. Too many daughters to marry off.

The UN and a whole bunch of international organizations slop in enough aid to keep hunger and disease away, but not enough to make life livable or worthwhile. The wealthy have satellite dishes on which they watch American reality shows and Turkish soaps. The poor kidnap them and hold them for ransom. It's not just life in the Middle East. It's the whole Third World experience.

About the only reliable source of wealth comes out of the ground and the countries that have it are usually too lazy to get it themselves. That's what the armies of Western engineers are for. They don't build their own skyscrapers with the oil money. That's what the disposable Asian workers are for.

Killing is the easiest solution to most problems. Men kill over honor. Women kill themselves out of desperation. Children grow up torturing animals.

Clerics settle religious questions with murder. It's just easier that way.

Theological debates are complicated and impossible to settle, but fly the black flags, seize a village, kill the men and force the women to convert to the true faith of the machine gun and the sword and the debate is over.

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2014...flags-fly.html

[LAGC]

Pretty much.

[alismith]

Can't argue with any of that. It's pretty much what cancer does. Kills off everything.

[Kadmos]

It's the whole Third World experience.

Yep. There are places in South America where some folks don't name their children until they are about 5 years old. They figure why get too attached if the kid is pretty likely do die before its fifth birthday.

I hate to say it, but it's really the history of most of the world, for most of time. High infant mortality, short life span. Religion allows them to think they get eternal happiness once they die, so what the hell...take what you can, kill who you want, feel free to risk anything, because you won't be here long and the next place will be better.

It's not like it wasn't mostly the same thing in the Ancient world, or for most of western history.

Even in "the old west" here in the US, it was much the same, have a ton of kids...spares, because many will likely not live long. Basic education, mostly in religion. Feuds between families very common, often resulting in deaths. Most "justice" was of the quick biblical variety.

It's nothing special about Islam, it's just that poverty ain't generally pretty.

[Oswald Bastable]

Yep. There are places in South America where some folks don't name their children until they are about 5 years old. They figure why get too attached if the kid is pretty likely do die before its fifth birthday.

I hate to say it, but it's really the history of most of the world, for most of time. High infant mortality, short life span. Religion allows them to think they get eternal happiness once they die, so what the hell...take what you can, kill who you want, feel free to risk anything, because you won't be here long and the next place will be better.

It's not like it wasn't mostly the same thing in the Ancient world, or for most of western history.

Even in "the old west" here in the US, it was much the same, have a ton of kids...spares, because many will likely not live long. Basic education, mostly in religion. Feuds between families very common, often resulting in deaths. Most "justice" was of the quick biblical variety.

It's nothing special about Islam, it's just that poverty ain't generally pretty.

I wasn't aware there was a dominant religious group in South America who wanted to either kill, convert or subjugate the rest of the world...do tell?

And today isn't all those other time periods of the world...it's this time, the 21st century...

And whose fault is all that poverty in all those oil rich lands?

[Kadmos]

I wasn't aware there was a dominant religious group in South America who wanted to either kill, convert or subjugate the rest of the world...do tell?

I believe they are called "Catholics", they tried for a rather long time...I guess eventually they realized it wasn't going to happen and gave up for now...hopefully forever, but you never really know.

And today isn't all those other time periods of the world...it's this time, the 21st century...

Wow, that's deep. Fish are often wet. Got any other basic facts that add nothing of value?

And whose fault is all that poverty in all those oil rich lands?

Couldn't tell you...I suppose not everyone can own land and have enough money to drill for oil. Or were you thinking some sort of massive social welfare program foisted on the rich? Perhaps you were thinking of socialism or communism as a solution?

[Oswald Bastable]

I believe they are called "Catholics", they tried for a rather long time...I guess eventually they realized it wasn't going to happen and gave up for now...hopefully forever, but you never really know.

Wow, that's deep. Fish are often wet. Got any other basic facts that add nothing of value?

Still living in the past, are we? And using denigration as a debate tactic...tsk, tsk...

Couldn't tell you...I suppose not everyone can own land and have enough money to drill for oil. Or were you thinking some sort of massive social welfare program foisted on the rich? Perhaps you were thinking of socialism or communism as a solution?

I see, so governments must be socialist or communist to have the welfare of their people as a high aim...can't be done any other way...okay then...so which is Israel?

I know...let's blame the Jews...it's worked for thousands of years...must be some truth there...