Random Ramblings about the Middle East, Oil, Democracy and Capitalism

Just when I thought the times couldn't get more exciting...pow!

Looking back two decades, I confess that I never thought we'd see the end of the Cold War without a nuclear exchange. I never thought we'd see the end of Apartheid without a blood bath. And I never thought I'd see a black face in the White House. I am glad to have lived so long.

The first decade of the 21st century --- except for the election of an African-American to the US presidency --- has been pure crap: 9/11, the two-front war, the Great Recession. Only the wealthiest Americans have benefited. (H.L.Mencken, the greatest American journalist of the 20th century once wrote, "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag and begin to slit throats." Well, let's save that for another day and another blog entry.)

But what to make of the first quarter of 2011? Mubarak brought down in Egypt in a relatively bloodless revolution... Gaddafi on the ropes... protesters in the streets of Yemen and Jordan and Morocco... it's the darndest thing.

Some are crediting the Social Net. A joke goes like this: Mubarak dies and meets Sadat and Nasser in Paradise. What happened to you they ask him? Poison? Shooting? No, replies Mubarak, Facebook."

Then there's the stated claims of Bush and Cheney. Bush in 2003: ""Our commitment to democracy is being tested in the Middle East." I always figured the Iraq invasion was strictly about oil. But, hey, after witnessing the end of the Cold War, the end of Apartheid, etc., who can really say that America's two-front war in the Middle East wasn't a catalyst to the changes we are witnessing now? No one wants to credit Reagan's Star Wars policy, the CIA's Afghanistan activities, etc. with bringing down the Evil Empire. And now I'm as reluctant as anyone left of the Far Right to credit the costly, miserable wars the US is fighting with actually fostering Middle Easter democracy. But we need to credit what we see with our two eyes. And as impressive as 600 "friends" might be, to say that Facebook and Twitter brought democracy to the Arab World... well, the technology certainly helped facilitate what's happening... but a cause of it? That seems like a stretch to me.

And as for the oil... I was iterested to learn on NPR this morning on the way in to work that America's biggest supplier of petroleum is... Saudi Arabia? Wrong. The right answer is Canada.

Turns out --- predictably, I guess --- that accessing Alberta oil posed environmental issues. As I cruised north on my daily 50-mile commute on $3.50 gas, and the winter hangs on here in the Northeast, global warming seemed a rather remote concern to me, I must admit. As with Pennsylvania's vast natural-gas resources, I have to put homeland security and the economy over environmental concerns. (Sorry, green friends.)

Anyway, exciting times. (But now it's time for me to move from the sublime to the mundane and get a little work done. Have a nice day!)

Oh, yeh... in my never-ending effort to sell you something, here's some recommended reading on the topics discussed above: