On Dead Jews and Arab Petroluem

There's a furor going on right now over at The Rottweiler. There are some people over there who have taken the suicide bombing in Jerusalem quote personally (to say the very least). My guess is that many are Jewish and several are Israelis.

Many are unhappy with me because a) I object to the notion that President Bush and Secretary Powell have blood on their hands and b) because, pragmatically speaking, for MY country, a dozen or so deaths in the West Bank is wholly preferable to the kind of economic chaos that would result if Israel would let loose and the whole region became embroiled in full scale war.

I must admit, on the first point, that I have absolutely no comprehension whatsoever of how a rational mind concludes that the President and State Department in 2003 are culpable for deaths in a cycle of violence that has been sucking in innocents and spitting out corpses for over fifty years. My guess is that those who are lambasting Bush and Powell for Palestinian wrongdoing are anything but rational, due to their close blood, ethnic, and / or emotional ties to Israel. I understand this.

Even in my most empathetic mood though i fail to grasp how the United States can be at fault for Palestinians attacking Israel. The tenor over at the Rottweiler seems to be that Bush & Powell are holding Israel back. One fellow said "Every time Bush calls Islam a religion of peace, it makes things worse."

Can ANYONE in their right mind REALLY believe that Islamic terrorists are even AWARE of what President Bush says? Does anyone REALLY believe that moderate Muslims, upon hearing President Bush speak, decided to then take up arms against the occupying Jews?

Jeepers.

As for the final point well maybe I have been indelicate in saying so but I believe:

- total war in the Middle East would occur if Israel finally fought back full force, and I believe

- worldwide petroleum markets would melt down if total war enveloped the Middle East, and I believe

- worldwide economic distress would result from petroleum price and supply shocks, and I believe

- the next step could very well be millions of dead worldwide in the resulting economic malaise.

I don't want to see dead Israelis, either. I think Israel has been VERY restrained for the past twenty-five years. I think the Israeli-Muslim conflict ends only when there is a winner (insofar as there can be one after decades of bloodshed).

For now pragmatism tells me it is better to suffer a handful of dead in Israel and the "occupied territories" each week than it is for the worldwide economy to be stricken with oil shortages.

Finally, for the record, I never complained when Liberals said "Iraq is all about the oil". I agree. It is. When they say "No Blood for Oil!", I reply "What better reason is there?"