World War III

[Racoon]

I hope there can be some sort of peaceful resolution in the Middle East,
BUT the proverbial s* is hitting the fan!

Israel is mobilizing their army into Lebanon in search and retrieval of their 2 kidnapped soldiers; who purportedly might be headed to Iran...

This doesn't look good.
Are those 2 soldiers going to be the assasinated duke Ferdinand of WW I ??

Is World War III on the horizon?

[Pyrotex]

Originally Posted by Racoon

I hope there can be some sort of peaceful resolution in the Middle East, BUT the proverbial s* is hitting the fan! ...

It does look pretty grim.
I believe that if America had just left the Middle East alone, or dealt with the parties in a balanced impartial way, they probably would have settled their differences by now. But America has been dumping a metric ton of money and guns into Israel for decades, and overlooking the very kind of behavior we condemn in the Palestinians.
Personally, I think both sides down there need a good paddling.
Let us hope that if there IS a major war, that both sides get hammered enough to make them flinch at the very thought of doing it again.

[TheFaithfulStone]

Originally Posted by pyrotex

both sides get hammered enough to make them flinch at the very thought of doing it again.

Unfortunately, that's not the way it normally goes when you tweak the Israelis. Generally, the Arabs get hammered and then start bombing random civilians.

I'm not generally an Israeli backer, but in this case, I think the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of Hezbollah and Hamas. My hope is that Israel doesn't confuse Hezbollah with the considerably more moderate Lebanese government, and that the Lebanese government finally does something about all the damn terrorists they're tacitly supporting.

TFS

[Freddy]

If 30% of the world's oil production did not come from the Mideast few would care about whether they find peace. I for one am so tired of hearing about the Arab/Israeli mess that has been going on for almost a century. Make peace or die!

[DarkColoredLight]

Originally Posted by Freddy

Make peace or die!

Just don't drag me into the equation.

needs to go to college, quick,
DCL

[paigetheoracle]

Not the spark for WWIII but it means poor old Lebanon will get plastered again. Left in peace things grow naturally from the inside-out. Attacked from the outside, they collapse outside-in. Yes, without the oil thing nobody would care less about the arab world. As for rights and wrongs - take away the religious attitude of divine right and reduce the situation to a scientific basis i.e. good is creation, evil (sin = error) is destruction - it stops being biased and becomes obvious that whoever starts a fight and whoever carries it on is in the wrong. The ordinary people suffer as always because all they want to do is just get on with their lives, not have the legs blown off or their children killed. Idealists are not realists - dead people (suicide bombers) don't want to be here and to be alive is to be here and living an ordinary life: The cult of personality is just as alive in the East as it is in the West but celebrity isn't on film but in martyrdom. Tolerance and forebearance allows life to continue - death is the easy way out (not here = no 'response-ability' i.e. ability to change things for the better, which takes hard work (nose to the grindstone, not bullet up the nose). Laziness of mind (ignorance) is equal to laziness of body (dead beat or beat dead).

[Racoon]

What are you jabbering about??

We're talking tactical military conflict; Tanks, rockets and mortars. People dead or with limbs blown off.
Arab countries Hate Israel ---- Israel has to defend itself.

If you haven't read the latest news, somone can post it here; or I will.

[orbsycli]

Yeah beiruit just got F***ed up...

((again))

[pgrmdave]

I don't think it could turn into WWIII. That would need to involve more modernized countries. Now, if parts of Europe start to back Palestine and Lebanon, and the US backs Israel...

I'd be more worried about N.Korea and China right now.

[Boerseun]

Doubtful.

The current 'crisis' in the Middle East is just the latest in an endless list of similar 'crises'. This has been going on for the best part of the last century, and, I suspect, ever since ole' Abraham hisself.

I kinda agree with the previous post that said "Make peace or die". I am so fed up with this crap. Kill each other, or do what you have to do. I simply don't care about the Middle East. Both parties (Israel & the Arab World) are equally good and equally bad depending on which comparison you use. They should just be careful that the rest of the world don't get desensitized by the continuous conflict that eventually nobody'll care.