Tasteless...

Seriously?  You're quoting Bangles lyrics... here... on the Bund?  That crosses a very real line, my friend.

First off... Palestine was NOT my example of a self-sustaining, food rich society.  Far from, in fact.  I mentioned it only in that the farms I used as examples are located in Palestine and Jordan, very near to the place where Christ was baptized.

Secondly, I'm not so ready to dismiss my position.  Zealotry is real... but it is NOT limited to the Islamic world, and it is not only those fanatics that call for a re-institution of a medieval caliphate that exist as a threat to peaceful Western lifestyles.

The radical nature of this "ultra-conservative" sect of Islam is dangerous only so long as it has adherents, and most (if not all) of its adherents are under 30 years of age, male, unemployed and see no viable prospects for their future, immediate or otherwise.  When this was NOT the case in the Levant, places like Beirut, Damascus, Antioch and Cairo were seen as vibrant, lively places to live and do business... and I'm not talking about ancient history.  I'm referring to as recently as the 1950's.

It is impossible for us (the Bund) to expect these people of the Arab world to willingly embrace the Western dream of the ideal... it is too culturally different to translate in any meaningful manner.  When I talk about real, honest "independence" for the people of places like Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan... and smaller hot-beds like Yemen, Sudan, Bahrain, Pakistan, and Libya... I'm talking about the rights of those people to self determination.  To decide for themselves how they want to run their lives, their societies and their lands... and to not have those decisions made by foreign powers whose interests are NOT the same as the people they are controlling.  All the blood, sweat, tears and treasure we spent to get a real, "democratic" vote established in Iraq was for what?  Air time for an American President trying to justify his part in the matter?  Even if all intentions were honest and good... nothing came of them.  Surely we are all aware of which road is paved with good intentions, right?

America has succeeded where nearly every other nation has failed when it comes to personal liberty... but it wasn't easy and it certainly wasn't without cost.  Think of the hundreds of thousands of lives WE have spent shaping this nation from an idea summed up in the Declaration of Independence and into the nation that has matured to a point where one half of the Presidential election ballot was going to be either a black man or a white woman.  We paid that cost... and it isn't perfect, but it is the best around.

Why, then, is it wrong to let other peoples find their own way?  Why can't they pay their own costs, as we have done here?  Could part of the problem with failing nations like Greece, Spain, Italy, Wiemar Germany, the USSR, be that they DID NOT pay that cost, and thus had no appreciation for the liberty they were given?

The best example other than us is Britain... and they certainly paid their dues.  As did Australia.  Brasil.  South Africa.  Jordan.  Why can't Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Iran do the same?  If the violence spreads, respond.  Otherwise, stand back and help pick up the pieces when its over.