If the West is to help the East; the East should pay the Gas.

[Greatest I am]

If the West is to help the East; the East should pay the Gas.

 

There are two basic ways, and two basic ways only, to conquer a nation; force of arms or by economic control.

 

At present, the West is spending much of it’s wealth in helping the Eastern revolutionary forces stabilize, organize and rid itself of the old political ways. At the same time, the East is attacking the West on the economic front, and preventing the West from helping it’s own Eastern political transition in a swifter fashion. IOW, the East is shooting itself in the foot by shooting the West in the foot. The East should recognize that it is hard for the West to put the hammer down when it is too expensive to put the hammer down. China is not helping at this point in time on the economic conquest of the western world with their dollar either. They should think globally a bit more. So should we all.

 

The East would be well advised to reduce the price of fuel to the West and thus fuel it’s own political aspirations.

 

I personally wish to contribute more to democracy, secularism and the individual freedoms that the East aspires to. If democracy is not about ending tyranny then it is worthless.

 

One of the founding notions of democracy, it seems to me; is that reciprocity is fair play.

 

In the case of fuel, it does not serve the East nor the West and the freedoms that both seek in terms of personal autonomy by having a high gas price.

 

Regards

 

DL

 

 

[A Tripolation]

Too bad people like money, eh?

[Realitycheck]

Who says that we're helping anybody? We were fighting wars against terrorism where many of the people supposedly helping us were secretly rooting for the other guys. It wasn't exactly our business going into Iraq and making a royal mess out of it. We finally got Bin Laden after we focused on him, and are starting to leave, because, lets face it, they never really wanted us there in the first place. While we may have maintained a better relationship than the Russians, is the end result really going to be that different? The lawless opium growers will still be the only claim to fame. Does anybody really believe that the Taliban is going to dissolve? Yes, al Qaeda is weakened, but now that the entire world is more "on war footing", who isn't surprised? Of course, only time will tell and cleaning up Iraq was probably a good deed, but was it worth it? Hurting our finances and goodwill, etc.?

Edited July 4, 2011 by Realitycheck

[Stefan-CoA]

Uh, the oil price is dependent on market speculations in Western countries.

 

The East doesn't ask for the West's interference. It's funny how the petrol price really started spiking with the West's economic meltdown and the invasion of Iraq.

 

My friend's mom recently traveled to Qatar, where she said the petrol price is about 2 Rand a liter, that's roughly 5 times cheaper than it currently is here in South Africa.

 

How is the West helping people reach democracy in a swifter fashion? Somalia has failed after US intervention, (Ok, technically not East, but still). Iraq and Afghanistan are still in shambles, even after the murder of their dictators, North Korea is still giving you the middle finger. Egypt's revolution was over in what, like one or two months? That was without Western intervention. Libya on the other hand, with American bombs trashing up the place is still fighting.

 

Nine times out of ten, people don't want Western intervention. Especially if that intervention comes in the form of smart bombs and tanks.

 

But I digress. The oil price is fairly constant in Eastern countries, it's just that as soon as there is some trouble, the stock markets all over the world go crazy and artificially inflate the oil price. The greed of the West is the only thing shooting it in the foot.

[Brainteaserfan]

Uh, the oil price is dependent on market speculations in Western countries.

 

The East doesn't ask for the West's interference. It's funny how the petrol price really started spiking with the West's economic meltdown and the invasion of Iraq.

 

My friend's mom recently traveled to Qatar, where she said the petrol price is about 2 Rand a liter, that's roughly 5 times cheaper than it currently is here in South Africa.

 

How is the West helping people reach democracy in a swifter fashion? Somalia has failed after US intervention, (Ok, technically not East, but still). Iraq and Afghanistan are still in shambles, even after the murder of their dictators, North Korea is still giving you the middle finger. Egypt's revolution was over in what, like one or two months? That was without Western intervention. Libya on the other hand, with American bombs trashing up the place is still fighting.

 

Nine times out of ten, people don't want Western intervention. Especially if that intervention comes in the form of smart bombs and tanks.

 

But I digress. The oil price is fairly constant in Eastern countries, it's just that as soon as there is some trouble, the stock markets all over the world go crazy and artificially inflate the oil price. The greed of the West is the only thing shooting it in the foot.

Generally I agree, but in Libya, the rebels did ask for our help. I guess that was the 1 in 10. They couldn't lower the price of oil, because they were fighting those who controlled the oil.