Why is the middle east such an unstable and highly volatile place today?

[Jeremy_phillips]

What are the root causes?

Do you think there is any possibility of peace in the middle-east in the future?

If so, what can we do today to make sure to make sure peace and prosperity in the region?

Edited August 4, 2017 by Jeremy_phillips

[iNow]

It's not just volatile today. It has been for a very long time. Human tribalism, ingroup/outgroup behavior magnified by different religious beliefs, tradition... When two different peoples feel god himself has entitled them to the same lands then of course there will be conflict since god can never from their perspective be wrong.

Probably the best we can do is to raise children to accept those who are different from ourselves and welcome those with different beliefs into our community... to broaden the circle and increase acceptance... reinforce that we're more similar than different... then in parallel hope those who don't do this... those who choose to remain rigid and to continually treat people as "others" or some how "less than"...will eventually die out across the generations and take their bad ideas with them. 

"The main hope of a nation lies in the proper education of its youth." ~Erasmus

Of course, I acknowledge it's not really that simple, but once you strip away all of the extraneous variables, bloody history, distractions and rationalizations... perhaps it truly is?

[Sensei]

"proper education" is interpreted differently by nationalist-type of person, than liberal-type of person.

Nationalists-patriots will learn people history of nation different way, different things, slightly or highly adjusted to their vision of world..

"Probably the best we can do is to raise children"... without any mention about human history... without mention about past wars, past conflicts, past mass murders of other nations... At least until they are enough intelligent at age >40 y old, when they're quantum physicists, IT, chemists, etc. etc. experts..

At the moment, nationalists, are learning young children about past disasters of their nations (in countries which have disasters in the past). This way they learn to hate people, learn to hate their neighborhood now, after many generations from the event. Resurrection of hatred, instead of forgiveness and peace.

 

Edited August 5, 2017 by Sensei

[nec209]

On 2017-08-04 at 4:48 AM, Jeremy_phillips said:

What are the root causes?

Do you think there is any possibility of peace in the middle-east in the future?

If so, what can we do today to make sure to make sure peace and prosperity in the region?

Not always been the case.

Doing ancient Egypt they where very advance and more stable.

I would pick ancient Egypt over the middle ages to live in if I had no choice.

 

[nec209]

On 2017-08-04 at 4:48 AM, Jeremy_phillips said:

What are the root causes?

Do you think there is any possibility of peace in the middle-east in the future?

If so, what can we do today to make sure to make sure peace and prosperity in the region?

Also India and Pakistan seem to be more stable than the other countries close to Israel that always in the state of war.

[JohnDoeLS]

Started in the 80s with the Soviet. Or in the 1950s when that religious guy started to talk about Western corruptions. Yeah, I have no idea too. Wasn't Iran pretty progressive before the 1977 revolution? I think the leaning against western corruption and desire to fight western imperialism might be one of them. 

Edited August 6, 2017 by JohnDoeLS

[dimreepr]

On 8/4/2017 at 2:40 PM, iNow said:

It's not just volatile today. It has been for a very long time. Human tribalism, ingroup/outgroup behavior magnified by different religious beliefs, tradition... When two different peoples feel god himself has entitled them to the same lands then of course there will be conflict since god can never from their perspective be wrong.

Probably the best we can do is to raise children to accept those who are different from ourselves and welcome those with different beliefs into our community... to broaden the circle and increase acceptance... reinforce that we're more similar than different... then in parallel hope those who don't do this... those who choose to remain rigid and to continually treat people as "others" or some how "less than"...will eventually die out across the generations and take their bad ideas with them. 

"The main hope of a nation lies in the proper education of its youth." ~Erasmus

Of course, I acknowledge it's not really that simple, but once you strip away all of the extraneous variables, bloody history, distractions and rationalizations... perhaps it truly is?

Having huge oil reserves haven't been much of a blessing either.

[Ten oz]

While it is true that the Middle East has been volatile for a long time I think a change is point of view is needed when considering the implications of that. Where is the world has it not been volatile for long time? Herein the U.S. we begun violently with the War for Independence followed by: The Quasi-War, War of 1812, Mexican American war, Civil War, Spanish American war, WW1, WW2, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War, Afghanistan War, and the Iraq War. Along the way we committed atrocities against Native Americans, enslaved Africans, repatriated Americans to Mexico on false pretense, dropped to atomic bombs on Japan incinerating woman and children, and etc, etc, etc. Today we have military troops actively involve in combot in Syria, Yemen, Somolia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Add to all that war the U.S. has more imprisoned citizens than any other country in the world, are one of the world leaders in Capital Punishment, and our police shoot and kill more citizens than all other none 3rd world countries combined. Yet we (USA) are not considered volatile despite the fact we relentlessly are at wars and awash in violence.

 

My point is not to demagogue the U.S., I love my country. My point is that it seems we only consider those countries which get bombs dropped on them volatile and not vice versa. Once a country grows powerful enough militarily to not have outside forces arbitrarily impose chioces on them they become stable. It is why North Korea and Iran seek dangerous levels of military power. If they didn't have strong military forces the leaderships of both (North Korea and Iran) would have been removed from power by external forces long ago. We can dicuss better education for the youth and all these things but living in a place being bombed regularly by occupying forces is the paramount challange. In Afghanistan 2 million were killed during the war with Russia and half a million have been killed thus far during the U.S. war. That is 2.5 million people in the last 30-40yrs of war. Then there is the loss of infrastructure from everything being blown up and burnt down. The loss of productivity is crippling. Similar numbers exist through the region. I won't go country by country because I'd be typing all day.

 

I am not blaming Russia, the U.S., and E.U, for all the problems. The region has many problems of its own causing to deal with. Thing is all regions have their own problems and having larger more powerful forces pressuring in is an extra burden and the easiest burden for the world community to stop. The whole world is a volatile place. War has been a constant through time and is generally always waged on the weakers home turf.

 

 

[bimbo36]

I think because the middle east people are stupid , and have only importance for religion 5 times a day .

[hypervalent_iodine]

57 minutes ago, bimbo36 said:

I think because the middle east people are stupid , and have only importance for religion 5 times a day .

!

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[bimbo36]

That is because i have lived in 2 middle east countries including Saudi Arabia and UAE , Both work related .

Just a bit too much emphasize on religion , and no beer in Saudi Arabia .UAE is an OK country