Go to A PACIFIST LOOKS AT FACTS ABOUT THE MIDDLE EAST
- Add a comment
- Go to LOOKS LIKE THE BEGINNING OF THE END?
ariel70
i read your profile
where you were and what you went through
this is like a paradise compared to that.
I like your stories -- gets me to thinking about my parents and how they met -- although I am about 10 years younger than you -- both parents were born 1907, but I've had similar stories passed down -- the Great Depression -- the War. It's the passing of stories from one generation to another that should keep our history alive so that others might learn from it.
posted by
Xeno-x
on June 29, 2006 at 7:00 AM
| link to this | reply
Xeno
You know, it's almost impossible to see the wood for the trees in one's own time. On personal, national and international levels perspectives have changed radically.
Jus think back to the sixties and seventies ; how many people were convinced that a nuclear war of annihilation was not only certain but imminent. Now we face different threats, which to our children, and even more our grandchildren,will prove illusive ; if not downright fatuous.
I'm far too old to be foolishly optimistic, and too experienced to be too pessimistic.
posted by
ariel70
on June 28, 2006 at 2:39 PM
| link to this | reply
i wont disagree with you ariel70
those were bad times
we have a time now that will rank up there because no one is thinking peace
it will have to rank as no 3 right behind the previous world wars.
we're just sliding into it indisiouisly -- not the same as those first -- but I guess the "lightness" of the situation will hide its seriousness -- know what i mean?
posted by
Xeno-x
on June 28, 2006 at 2:18 PM
| link to this | reply
Xeno
Your views are very clear, and forcefully expressed, but I still maintain that the world situation is not as bad as, for example, 1913/14, when it was a powder keg just awaiting a spark.
To us in the 30s and 40s, it really did seem, and with good cause, that we were doomed to a generations-long slavery, and ( to revert once more to 1941 ) the situation appeared utterly hopeless to us.
But here we are. There have been major and minor wars raging since .. well, you name a year.
posted by
ariel70
on June 28, 2006 at 1:24 PM
| link to this | reply
ariel70
i don't mean doomed in the sense that most apocalyptic writers mean it.
i see the Isareli actions as a very unnecessary excalation of a situation where other means could have been taken -- less drastic -- first they invade Gaza, then they fly jets over Baghdad -- or close.
U.S. has escalated war against mideast countries.
Arabs are bound to reatliate somewhere.
I fear a breakdown in peace talks between Israel and Palestinians -- more bombings -- Syria becmoing involved -- Iran becoming more militant, Iraq falling apart, etc. -- this is the end of any kind of peaceful coexistence as we know it.
aint no rapture or Revelatontype happenings ogng to happen -- just a collapse in world peace like we've never experienced.
this is the new rold war -- not like WWII -- but it stillis -- low casualities compared -- but a war ongoing for maybe decades -- it is likely we will never hear of peace again.
posted by
Xeno-x
on June 28, 2006 at 1:07 PM
| link to this | reply
Xeno and Mountain
Oh dear! WE are gloomy and pessimistic, aren't we?
Compared to the titanic world-wide battles that were raging, in, say, 1941, what's happening in the Middle East is a minor local affray.
We survived WW1 and WW11, so what on earth leads you to suppose that this time we are doomed?
We've been doomed at every millenium since 0AD, and on many occasions between too, but by some miracle, here we still are. Still crying " We're doomed!"
posted by
ariel70
on June 28, 2006 at 12:08 PM
| link to this | reply
mountainclimber56
we aren't talking about the same end
this is a real thing here -- no more peace i fear.
posted by
Xeno-x
on June 28, 2006 at 11:58 AM
| link to this | reply
Xeno-X -- Not now, but some day the Bible says, the end will come
and it will begin in the Middle East -- I don't think we are quite there yet!
posted by
MountainClimber57
on June 28, 2006 at 7:47 AM
| link to this | reply