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Havoc

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I'm more optimistic. The region was relatively peaceful before WW1. Eventually there has to be "reversion to the mean".

There was something that changed after WW2 and is still there today that guarantees eternal war as long as it is there.

Compared to all the peace in Europe during the last 500 years and the on going conflict in Ukraine?

I’m a bit more optimistic about wars where there isn’t a strong religious aspect on both sides. Can still be bloody (WW1/2) but doesn’t have the same dynamics that make me so pessimistic about the Middle East

> I just feel nihilism/defeatism towards the Middle East. In 500 years they’ll still be killing each other with all sides genuinely believing in their righteousness

Phrasing it as something that happens over there is disingenuous when it resource extraction and foreign interference that directly contributed to political unrest and radicalization and war. It is the CIA that poured literal millions in funding extremists groups. It is western troops and bombs and that landed on their soil again and again.

It's not something that simply happens over there, war is not some unforgivable trait related to tanned foreign people who believe in islam. Our governments have their hand in this cookie jar.

The middle east is an outdated term referring to a conflict zone that the West itself created.

Your response to me saying everyone is blaming each other is to give your opinion as to who is to blame?

See why I’m not optimistic?

You're not being as sly as you think you are. You said "they’ll still be killing each other", implying that this is the nature of the "Middle Eastern" people.

This, of course, is a statement that almost required the person who replied to you to add context due to the absurdity of the statement.

If you genuinely did not mean to imply this, you might consider reading your comments before submitting.

That's not what you said. You implied it's simply in the nature of the Middle East to be fighting religious wars, and that is why you are hopeless.

In fact, the aggressors in this case are European colonists, only 3rd generation or so, and they are pretty much following the standard historical playbook for how European colonists treat locals, including the assumed divine right of genocide ("manifest destiny") The Middle East isn't an especially belligerent place otherwise.

So I call your characterization unfair.

We don't have to bring peace to the region, but for god's sake can we stop funding the eviler side in every conflict? The USA spends more money blowing up schools of brown people than it does on keeping its own schools running.

And over what? A bone dry desert and acres of literal dirt.

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