July 16, 2006

Cycle

I was going to write the post that solves the Middle East in about 300 words, but I keep coming up short. We are deep in the cycle of violence now. Lots of people getting blown up on both sides. Its always amazing to me how much attention violence in the Middle East gets. Dozens of people could be killed in Africa or Burma or Sri Lanka and it barely makes a blip on the world media radar. But as soon as the bombs start flying between Israel and somebody, it jumps strait to the front page. Evening news anchors start broadcasting from the region. Why do we care so much about death in the Middle East? Is it the biblical nature of the conflict, the presence of Armageddon, which makes every shot fired seem like impending doom?

2 comments:

Tyler said...

It' the oil. By the way, I heard on the news that energy analysts are predicting $100 per barrel of oil soon. Get ready to pay $4.50/gal at the pump in Caly.

Archaeogoddess said...

Most of the players in the current scuffle, Israel, Lebannon, Palestine, and Syria (to some extent) really don't have any oil. But each country is backed by a superpower with nuclear capabilities and the Islamic fundamentalists that started all this fuss by kidnapping soldiers are backed by the big oil countries. Everyone is backed by some one with more money and even deadlier rockets. As a side note, Meggido (proposed location for Armageddon) is within rocket stricking distance from Lebannon.

Tyler, gas is $10 a gallon over here; we spend over $100 to fill up the tank. For some reason I cannot understand, SUV's are becoming more popular rather than less and BMW discontinued making it's commuter car that went 68 miles per gallon: not enough interest!!