Quote Originally Posted by trollgirl
Kex, your comments on oil are worth while, and the claim of 200 years may well have been hype or an urban legend. However the proven fact of abiotic oil makes it moot. There's oil aplenty. Your assumption that I don't understand how the military works might merely rest on not having noted that I said "plan and organize". I understand every thing you say in that paragraph. Remember what Brecht said: "When the leaders speak of peace, the mobilization orders have already been written out."

Yes, but like you say yourself, there are two sides - the Zionist State is now threatening the extinction of its neighbors and the removal of Palestinians from the region. They are running out of sympathy all over the world, and maybe you have noticed. They have cried "Wolf!" too many times. Yes, there's plenty of blame to go around, but we Americans should face our share squarely, and be more humble. BTW, I don't care a fig for Kim Jong Il...

Laz
I don't think anyone disagrees there's plenty of oil. The supply of which is "controlled" by cartels with self-serving interests. And before you blame it on the USA, remember who struck the first blow. Opec's been rigging their supply/production scheme for decades now - when supply is down, its rare that Russia, Venezuela (before joining Opec) or Canada or the US would boost production to compensate - they don't want their supplies depleted sooner because of an artificial, politically motivated decrease in supply. So they all sit on their oil, staring at each other, while the consumer pays a bit more. Oddly enough, Saudi Arabia usually plays the role of peace-maker in these situations.

Something will replace oil as the primary source of fuel long before all oil stocks are exhausted - I think a lot of companies are betting on this - There's a lot of reseves that are full of oil, but would be absolutely huge, capital intensive, decade or more long projects that would take years of revenue streams to pay for...What's more, the oil that we get out of the ground is getting more and more difficult to refine into more usuable forms. And refining is a massive part of the end-user costs these days - let's not forget that. So the decision to drill often requires over 20 years of accurate foresight. You honestly can't blame the companies - the consumers and governments ask them to find oil, pay for getting it out of the ground, so they want some guarantee that there'll still be reasonable demand for however long it takes to recover costs.

Is it unthinkable that oil demand in 20 years could be vastly reduced? I dont' think so - as long as there's an ambitious car company or technology firm that wants to take the money that consumers give to gas companies, there'll be work on more efficient engines and alternative energy sources.

What's all this got to do with Israel and Lebanon? Not much - as the vast majority of those folks don't benefit at all from Oil. This a centuries old religious and territorial war. The fundamental teachings of the religions on both sides create a sense of "Promise" or entitlement to the land. The only solutions I can see is to remove one side, or the other from the region - which both sides would die for to prevent - or to beat this sense of entitlement into submission and let these guys duke it out. Lose/lose situation. But we helped put Israel there, so we have to support them now. How many other countries have we meddled with, and then abandonned to slaughter (Iraq, Cuba, Rwanda, etc).

I find it ironic that middle east sympathizers point out that the reason people become "terrorists" and attack the US is because they can only put up with so many acts of provocation against them before they snap - US foreign policy or otherwise - and that we should expect strong retaliation from these people because "they can only take so much".
Israel's peoples' history is full of persecution and attacks, probably as much or moreso than any other people on Earth. It may not be justifiable, but at least I can understand their actions - they're not going to wait for things to escalate to a point where the international community justifies their decision to create war. History has forced them to believe they can't. And that history is in their blood, dating back even long before there was a United States of America.