what going on with the arabs

The article from the Economist, “A special report on the Arab world,” is much more intriguing to me because it is a contemporary issue that needs to be dealt with. This article makes solid points to explain why the Arab nations have fallen behind the western nations. In most areas, they have showed little if any advancements towards a stable form of government. Not only do many states lack a stable government, but they have nothing to account in positive change for that last twenty or so years. In the article they use a comparison of Rip Abu Winkle and say what if he fell asleep in the 1980’s and woke up now, not much would be different.

There are many reasons for the lack of development in the Arab states. One of the major reasons is because of oil. A nice graph shows proven world oil reserves with the Middle East and North Africa having 60.4% of the world’s oil reserves. I think there are a couple Arab states in the Middle East and North Africa, right? It would not be that big of a deal if it was never discovered as a natural resource that humans could exploit, and if the U.S. wasn’t so dependent on foreign oil. Unfortunately, with the industrial revolution oil was going to be needed and our good friend Rockafeller and big business came along.

Another reason is the ongoing conflicts between Arab and Iranian conflict with Israel. What are these conflicts over anyway: religion, oil, power? Whatever the problem is I would hope that someone could fix the bloodshed, the instability, and the ignorant leaders who gain power in corrupt ways. The article explains how there is no nationalism. They are all separated not by distance and borders, but by many factors and they don’t even have their own identity.

This was a good read because something needs to be done. I thought the article was quite objective, but it does explain the situation well with good use of charts. Either way, why did we originally invade in 90’ and 91’ and when will we be out. The Vietnam conflict was consistent for 16 years with a strong U.S. military presence for only five to six years. We have had a strong military presence in the Middle East for at least the last nine years, some may say more especially if you count desert storm. I am not against the war, but I hope the government isn’t making the same mistakes. Also, is it the Unites States responsibility to make sure that all the countries that have oil, have democracy?