Middle East
...? No worries or conflicts. If these are the ways you define peace in life then all you can hope for is death. We are completely and inevitably responsible for our sense of peace. I believe that it is too difficult for anyone to accept that external factors have no control over peace. It is much easier to Martin 2 place blame and responsibility on something or someone else. I don’t think peace depends on what did or did not occur. Instead it depends on how one perceives the situation. We cannot control people or things that happen but we can control how we react to them. The world would change if everyone could work together to see people and situations in a different light then we have previously. The United States and the Middle East have a long and grueling history. According to the American Public Opinion report in 1999; Americans felt secure, prosperous, and confident. They saw the United States as the world’s most important and powerful country, with fear of armed threats from a rival superpower diminished. “ They support measures to thwart terrorists, prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction and keep defense strong, but shy away from using U.S. troops on foreign soil.” (Chicago Council on Foreign Relations) Most people do not pay attention to politics and history until they intrude rudely on their everyday lives. The majority waits for a dramatic event such as 9-11 to occur before taking any real interest in foreign policy. Congress and each successive administration pledge their political, financial, and military support for Israel. We call ourselves a strong ally of the Israeli people yet each year we send billions of dollars in foreign aid to Muslim states; that many Israelites regard as enemies. American financial aid to Israel began in 1949 with a 100,000-dollar trade loan. Since then we have been steadily pouring aid into Israel for decades at rates and terms given to no other nation on earth. The Cold War is over and the real threat to stability in the Middle East lies in the tension between Israel and its Arab neighbors. In my opinion, it is no longer about stability it is about resources. The American culture is based on high individualistic Martin 3 values therefore we are in “it” for the individual (America). Continuing foreign aid to the Middle East at this point is not in the best interest of their economy. Modern Middle Eastern geopolitics are about oil. Some Americans refer to it as, “ Black Gold.” We have based our economy on oil and can not survive with out it. This is why we will most likely continue to supply foreign aid to the Middle East. Majority rules and Saddam Hussein has been voted in again in Iraq. His opponent loses gain. In an attempt to overthrow the regime of Saddam Hussein the United States appears determined to move forward with plans to engage in a large-scale military operation against Iraq. Is it legal for the United States to bomb Iraq? Can it be justified? The cost of war itself is not worth the effort and the lives that will be lost. It cost much more to fight a war than it does to continue supplying the Middle East with foreign aid. An invasion in Iraq would cause enormous political ...