I think this was already brought up in another thread, but a few years ago there was an "art" display which had a crucifix in a vat of urine and a portrait of the Virgin Mary done in some sort of dung.

I don't recall rioting and burning of buildings back then, certainly Jesus and the Virgin Mary are as important to Christians as Mohammed is to Muslims...

I read a book back in college - "If you Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him!" It made sense to me on many levels yet why do I think that if someone from the middle beast got their hands on it would become a terrorist manual?

Suddenly I feel much better about the whole situation. :)

No, it seems the west doesn't riot over religion, but they riot over other perceived oppressions. Riots aren't exclusive to the Muslim commuity. The root cause here and the common element of all is a feeling of oppression because, among other things, of their religion...

That's good moses. :)

CC, I'm sure you would find some +'s in Hitler and their like, your the lawyer at a Killers trial who says...not his fault..his mom wouldn't let him watch Bug's Bunny.. he was oppressed,misunderstood..blah blah.

Rika the Infidel

Actually, no Rikao. However, I do not compare Hitler to Muslim people, and if you do, you'd be inaccurate.

We are all professionals, no? When a problem arises, what do we do in our professional life? Do we just get mad and damn it to hell? Do we just ignore it? What happens to that problem? Does it go away, or does it get worse? It gets worse. Whether we're doctors, mechanics, in management, IT, etc., we do a root-cause analysis and address the root causes for the solution.

Why would one think this situation is "different"?

I don't know about U all, but I am laying in a stock of Duct Tape and Plastic Sheeting...hmmm I wonder if its too late to become Swiss?

The chicks are hot but the food sucks...

The Christians allready had their Inquistion and wars of Reformation.

Okay CC, then we need to do a ROOTcanal, the tooth is worthless,causes pain,
you, would gargle and floss...and take pills
me , pull it or or kill the nerve and be done with it.
Rika / Infidel

Not if the root canal tooth kills or damages every other single healthy tooth in your mouth renders you unable to eat, and thus will starve.

So the question remains from that line of reasoning - would my life be any less rich if the entire middle beast became a pathetic combination of a glass parking lot, oil production platform and a humongous protein rendering site?

It would become much, much less rich if it became those things. It would become nonexistent within a year or so.

Rika votes for the parking lot,
CC you know little about dentistry, purpose of canal is to preserve the others, and keep tooth . I would still go for the pull / or canal. Your version has me in pain and dying at the end anyway.
Rika the Infidel

Can you please outline a project plan as to how you'd pull out the bad criminals in this situation worldwide while preserving the good ones and make sure they don't rot... I'm willing to listen to your project plan...

Your parking lot scenario isn't like pulling out a bad tooth to preserve the good ones.....

Coke Cola and MCDs wouldn't like it if U turned the place into a parking lot....think of all the soda and Burgers they sell in the place. Not good to lose customers

I don't think so. We are not as dependent as you would think.

The thing is, the middle beast just does not ‘get’ the US and the US doesn't ‘get’ them.

If you explore the core of why wars and national / cultural hatred occur it really may just boil down to a few things:
1) Economics - they got more then us and they don't deserve it
2) They have one foot in hell and the other on a banana peel - we are morally superior
3) They hurt us - economically or physically so we must hurt them
4) They have something that is ours (or so we think) like land or water rights
5) They are friends of our enemies so they must also be our enemies

A HS junior could sort out each of those issues in a lunch period!

I propose that all major religions and every major government choose not to strive for reconciliation. It ain’t rocket science yet all make it so freak’n complicated that no end is in sight. I just wish somebody would show some ballz and nail this down. I see absolutley no leadership from any party, government or religion on this matter - and I am not sure I ever have.

lube, it's not a matter of dependency.

What if they turned the US into a glass parking lot, what do you think would happen? (clue....it starts with a WWW and ends with a III). Why do you think it would be different in reverse?

Secondly, I don't think we have the power to turn the whole ME into a glass parking lot.

Hey CC we allready had WW3..it was called the Cold War...

And Secondly how naive you are...just think what a coupla Trident Missles with MIRVs can do....