It's the End of the World As We Know It....

I am not usually easily persuaded to believe apocalyptic rants. I haven't read the Left Behind series, and probably won't. I am usually pretty optimistic about things. But I have to admit that the situation in the Middle East is scaring me. I look at these mindless drones that hate just for the sake of hating and it seems senseless and wasteful. Last year I read a book The Search for Zarathustra-one of my little dives into anthropology. In it, the author traveled the Middle East trying to reconcile religious beliefs with cultural practices. Strangely enough, there were many traditions and beliefs in ALL OF THE PEOPLE OF THE REGION, that predate any established religion. And that was Zarathustraism. This particular religion featured a prophet with a direct link to the deity, a belief in absolute right and wrong/good and evil, and an underlying support for the philosophy of "if you aren't for us, you're against us". If you look at various religions from that region, there is this thread of commonality that exists. And that is the belief, or stubborn opinion, that there is Absolute Right and Absolute Wrong. Unfortunately, with no gray area, there is also no room for negotiation. So on one side you have a religion that denounces all others, supports an attitude of quashing other religions at all costs and is convinced it is absolutely right. And you have the other side that believes almost exactly the same thing. Israel has at least been willing to give up land, but in payback they get kidnappings and suicide bombers and continued threats. Appeasement isn't going to change things when you have a population that is caught in an Old Testament mindset. While the thought depresses me, there are times when might does make right, even when its a case of a truly backward country being put to rights by an advanced one. Backing down evidentally doesn't help the cause, because we did that after Desert Storm and Saddam still made threats to the region. Israel has given up land and tried to deal, only to be repeatedly attacked. I am not sure where this is all going to end up. I'd like to think that something miraculous will occur and things will be peaceful, but there are too many players and no trust. Right now, Iraq feels safe in swaggering around and supporting Hezbollah because it thinks that Russia and China will support them. Little do they know that the second the tide changes and Iraq's power structure shifts, Russia and China will change allegiance in a snap. There are too many nations trying to relive old empires (France) and others that feel themselves above the situation from a moral high ground (Germany) when in reality, everyone's hands are dirty and everyone is looking out for themselves. I don't think that the United States is absolved in this case, but I do think in some instances, we are the goat due to the fact that we are the largest target. It's easy to hit an elephant, but you are more likely to be killed by a snake. All we can do is hope and pray. And in the meantime, would it really hurt if a few moose lost some land in the ANWAR? I mean if liberals REALLY think this war is all about oil, then why don't we do something to produce domestically and use our own resources such as coal until we have a better solution? Anything is better than being a sitting duck.