Why is the middle east wasting its golden opportunity?

Post-9/11 Era Forum

Many commentators I have heard interviewed in the middle east say one of the largest concerns and frustrations of the middle east is that they are falling so far behind the rest of the world.

So why are they wasting their energy in the middle of this golden opportunity?

The middle east has oil. A precious but limited commodity to the world. What this means is they have a very short timeline to get modernized and integrated with the rest of the world before that commodity runs short or becomes less important (hydrogen cars).

I am saying this not on a 5 year timeline, I mean a 50+ year timeline. This oil build up has been happening for over 30 years and in that time many of these nations have taken this opportunity and in my opinion have blown it on trying to create incredible weapons, or blame anyone else for their problems besides themselves.

If the middle east as a whole is going to change, it must change from within. Outside forces can play a role in this, but there must be a fundamental change in a few perceptions.

1) Women, cannot be marginalized. They are 1/2 the population of the world and increase productivity. If they are marginalized there is no way the middle east can compete against other sectors of the world without this limitation.

2) Life has to mean something. Suicide bombers make the blood of the middle east look cheap. At least in America, 1 person being saved is a great victory and 1 person dying is a tradgedy. Yet, so many suicide bombers just blow themselves up just to kill people they have never met, makes it appear that a single life must not mean much in the middle east.

3) They must realize change can be made, but it is **** hard. The hardest thing in the world I believe is to change a nations policies. You are fighting beurocracies, and agenda's etc... but that is no excuse to stop the fight. If the problem is in their own nation, going to another country to protest doesn't make a lot of difference.

4) Religious leaders are not helping. They have to realize this. the United States does not make domestic policy in Egypt, nor any other middle eastern nation. That government, made up of their own citizens, makes their own policies. Attacking the west will not make their lives any better. Attacking their own government... may.

Hard work is HARD WORK. It was not easy to get the west in the current state it is in, and took a crap load of lives to do it, but once it is done... it is done and the difficulty to overcome the inertia that it took to create that free society now will act for people, because anyone wanting to destroy that system will have to overcome at least that same amount of inertia.




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Be ashamed to die unless you have won some victory for humanity.
Horace Mann, Educator

Excellent post Robert!

I agree with most of what you said.

-Rage

100% agree with you. Blaming Israel or the US for ALL their problems isn't going to cut it anymore.

If you look into history, the middle east has been at war and conquered many other countries many times as well. The difference is that within the last 300 years or so that changed. Even with that change it did not mean that countries like Iraq or Saudia Arabia had to come to this.

Saudia Arabia is incredibly wealthy for its population, yet still women have very limited rights, and they have had almost no innovative technology come out of Saudia Arabia, nor any of the other middle eastern countries.

Microsoft alone has more cash on hand than some of these countries make in a year, and their wealth has come within the last 20 years alone. They didn't have hundreds of years to promote progress, nor have millions of people to work for that progress, and they did it in less than a quarter of a century.

So, obviously when you say "The west conquered ....blah blah" That is ancient history. These people have to live in NOW. Not in the past, else they will just be wasting their time.

Of course you will have muslim religious leaders preaching, "It is the United States fault you do not have money, it is the United States fault you do not have freedom.... the great satan america...." all the while not mentioning the fact that the Saudi princes are some of the wealthiest people in the world yet do not invest in their own countries technological growth.

The United States and many other western countries are on the verge of incredible Biological research that could possibly "Stop aging", "Cure HIV", "Regrow missing limbs". This and technology that will allow people to: interact directly with computers though implanted technology directly in the skin; have communication systems that allow wireless computing anywhere in the world for a very reasonable price, and even military technology that basically mimics a cloaking device from star trek... etc... where are the advances from the Middle east ??????

If they are to compete, then they are going to have to live in this century, and put their money where their mouth is. The United States spends 750 Billion dollars a year on education alone. How much does the middle east spend?

Nicely said and well thought out Robert. Kudos.

I do firmly believe that there are so many across our bog globe that condemn the US because of the fact that we happen to be the best (not bragging, just a fact). It is human nature for people to hate, or be jealous of, the mighty and the powerful and make up excuse after excuse for their feelings to justify them.

America has been involved in wars all over the world since WWII. It has backed the overthrow of democratic governments. It has also done many great things. But If you ignore history it has a terrible habbit of repeating itself. When asked 40 years ago "Why do they [the Arabs] hate us?", President Eisenhower's National Security Council outlined the basic reasons: "the US supports corrupt and oppressive governments and is "opposing political or economic progress" because of its interest in controlling the oil resources of the region."

Fear not DaveDon, we are in the middle of a war. This always happens when we are in war. The conservatives gain power, they start making a bunch of outragous laws, some of which are good, some of which are not. They get voted out, the democrats come in they vote out those previous bad laws then make a few good ones, then start making some bad laws themselves.

It is a consistent cycle in a 2 party system. You have liberalists and you have ultra conservatives, and most people are somewhere in the middle. Unfortunately right now I we are in a very conservative time that was basically caused by the terrorists in the middle east themselves.

Everyone needs to understand something. It is the middle east that brought George Bush to power. No one else. Bush's presidency was dramatically boring and uneventful and full of crap that was going to get him voted out in the next term for sure. Stuff like - closeness to Enron, backing harvey pitt when when he has done jack Sh*t against corporate fraud, writing crap environmental policy, alienating the US from the UN and from our european allies, etc... All of these were large marks against the Bush Administration before 9/11. He would have been gone.

Obviously when your country is attacked things get very nationalistic, and very conservative. Most of the smaller stuff goes to the back burner and survivalist instincts come to the front. Moderate voices go silent and you get the George Bush we see now.

closeness to Enron
- forgotten and a vague memory now

backing harvey pitt when when he has done jack Sh*t against corporate fraud
- noone cares now

writing crap environmental policy
- noone is even thinking environment at these times

alienating the US from the UN and from our european allies
- after what the UN has done because of the Self interests of France, Germany, and Russia most americans in the back of their minds are saying "F**k the UN, F**k Europe".

Moderation is not a popular thing right now, and the more extreme the people of the middle east get. Trust me they will only make Bush and his "Doctrine" more powerful.

If the Middle east wants change, the first thing it must do is back up a step, and have everyone back up a step. Basically right now most americans are like the biggest guy in the middle of a bar room brawl. You don't know who started the fight, but you know for sure your going to finish it. If everyone fights against you, you will just have to get really **** mean and nasty to win, but if everyone backed the F**k off, standing alone with a chair in your hand sort of makes you feel silly, so you put it down and have a beer.

Now when I say everyone, I mean everyone. You will see very quickly that america will change its 100% focus to N Korea if the middle east just backed off, and if everyone backed off, US economic policy would take the #1 place.

robert135 - I like what you're saying. I hope you're right. I look at Bush and the US government and they are a scary sight.

Good to know America hasn't completely lost her mind - nice post robert.

Thanks Robert. Glad to see that all USA is not under hypnoptize.