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Originally Posted by Nightrider  I like this quote from your Wikipedia source: Samuel Huntington has modified his Clash of Civilizations theory by using youth bulge theory as its foundation: "I don't think Islam is any more violent than any other religions, and I suspect if you added it all up, more people have been slaughtered by Christians over the centuries than by Muslims. But the key factor is the demographic factor. Generally speaking, the people who go out and kill other people are males between the ages of 16 and 30. During the 1960s, 70s and 80s there were high birth rates in the Muslim world, and this has given rise to a huge youth bulge. But the bulge will fade. Muslim birth rates are going down; in fact, they have dropped dramatically in some countries. Islam did spread by the sword originally, but I don't think there is anything inherently violent in Muslim theology." I have to agree with Huntington on that one. I think that youth bulge theory plays an important role here. As someone who is presently in college (and close to that age group), I see a lot of anger in these kids faces these days. I have to admit that sometimes it’s chilling. However, I don’t believe that the answer is to necessarily send these kids off to war – but to educate them through logic and reasoning. So, yes (somewhat like Ghandi or even the Dalai Lama, I suppose), I do believe that war (for the most part) can be overcome through logic and reasoning. Some more quotes from that Wikipedia source: “Since respectable positions cannot be increased at the same speed as food, textbooks and vaccines, many "angry young men" find themselves in a situation that tends to escalate their adolescent anger into violence: they are - demographically superfluous,
- might be out of work or stuck in a menial job, and
- often have no access to a legal sex life before a career can earn them enough to provide for a family.
- The combination of these stress factors according to Heinsohn[14] usually heads for one of six different exits:
- Violent Crime
- Emigration ("non violent colonization")
- Rebellion or putsch
- Civil war and/or revolution
- Genocide (to take over the positions of the slaughtered)
- Conquest (violent colonization, frequently including genocide abroad).”
I think that we have to do more work in these areas, not only here in the US but around the world as well. Let’s face it, most (if not all) of us go through a period in our lives (particularly adolescence) when we are angry and frustrated. However, people mature as they get older and are more able to use logic and reasoning to solve their problems. Granted, some people never mature and maybe that’s why we have war in the first place. But, war is not always the answer. I just believe that we should always emphasize peace first. Peace - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Anyhow, I have to go, Zack – will get back to this thread and your “War” link later as my replies are warranted. . . |
I respect your position. And, I also find war a terrible way to resolve differences.
Persons with no demanding needs will almost always live in harmony. America is a land where we have total ability to meet our demands for those basic needs that satisfy and lead to harmony.
World peace can be obtained by moving into a commune, turning off the news and withdrawing to your harmonious island of peace. It's like quickly pulling your hand out of a bucket of water, the water settles down and any turbulence in that water remains in that water.
With that and what you wrote above in mind I look back at wars in America's history and often wonder why logic and reason didn't warrant a different approach.
Our most recent wars were born from splinters of former wars and our own selfishness. The Mid East nations were the losing side of WWI & WWII and as a result were minimized as subordinate nations to the victors. We have a long history with the Mid East since the founding of our nation. The USMC song with the words "to the shores of Tripoli" clearly displays our interaction as nations. The ME was once a very powerful nation state of the Ottoman Empire that was repeatedly diminished by changes in trade routes with the western Europeans big brains setting out to explore the world resulting in the discovery of America. With the losses of authority in trade and power related to war and economic changes in trade routes the victors put a little salt in the wound by establishing the state of Israel on their, or what they determined to be their land.
The Iraq War, stated based on a "selfish" choice background... While this portion of the old Ottoman Empire has been under Western Europe management since the breakup of the Empire the region had no impact on America. The reason the Iraq region was managed by Western Europe was because of war and the assets of oil in the region that must be protected by the victor to assure a future enemy would not use that oil to fight another war against the victors.
The Ottomans America wasn't interested in the Mid East outside of Cold War implications following WWII since it was in the interest of the Western Europeans peace.
The British Mandate for Palestine Selfish because America could not work out differences between political parties within America as it relates to American energy... as today in the late 1960's America no longer had enough domestic energy supplies to satisfy domestic demands so we were forced (we choose) to buy energy from the ME. It was then that Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the rest became a foreign policy area of national interest... a nice way to say, they have something as essential as air and water for our survival by our choice...
We could not afford to allow Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the rest of the oil producers to become too strong or join together or we would be at the will of the strong player... We had a choice, drill at home or go to war in the ME to protect our oil supplies, we choose war... Manage Iran, they take our citizens hostage, oh yea then we will give the neighbor some reasons to beat you up and make you weak... Iraq, oh yea now I'm feared in the hood so I'll beat up on Kuwait and then take Saudi Arabia... America and Western Europe, oh no you won't! It was our choice rather than to drill here to join in the Western European security problems.