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Just some questions: what was the last fundamental scientific breakthrough that emerged from the Arab world? Why doesn't any major news network pay attention to stock markets in the Arab world? When was the last time you saw "made in the middle east" on any of your consumer goods? Why does the middle east need *western* companies and experts to export their oil?
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Dragonlich, some answers to your questions:
Most of the Arabs you refer to study in Europe or the US, before getting jobs around the world just like anyone else. The reason they study Abroad is due to the strong trade links there, the excellent schooling system, for historical reasons and for the racial tolerance
Watch CNN, and look out for the Oil prices, or listen out for a thing called OPEC, both of these are modestly influential in the world markets.
Last time I was in the UAE, there were many goods there that had been manufactured in the region, also many from Japan, India, China, Pakistan and Israel.
The Middle East needs Western companies to be involved in the exportation of oil because it is the West that consumes the vast majority of it. Just the same as when you seriously want to export Western goods into Middle Eastern markets, you will need Middle Eastern companies to facilitate the sale and keep you in business.
I'm still shocked and amazed at the naked nationalism that, in 2004, is still being displayed by otherwise seemingly intelligent people. 60 years ago, nationalism brought the world into a bitter and dreadfull conflict that left millions dead. That blind nationalism is still alive today. It almost destroyed the world during the Cold War (by the way, does anyone else find amusing the way that Terrorism has been swapped for Communism nowadays? - a resurgence of
McCarthyism can only be around the corner) But still the nationalism continues - the belief that your particular country happens to be right is based only on the random location of your birth. Doesn't that seem odd to you? Doesn't it seem strange to be able to label whole races of people as 'jealous', 'terrorists', 'too weak to exterminate the Jews ', 'interested in destroying the west, to drag them down to their level', 'angry', 'blaming', 'religious fanatics', 'trying to win converts with terrorist acts' etc etc - It's laughable propagandist bollocks - If you met any of these people, you would very quickly come to realise that they are
exactly the same as you or I. The pressure on the area is very high for various social, historical, economic, religious and political reasons - how would the people where you come from deal with the situation?
The IRA, ETA and the ANC are/were non-muslim terrorist organisations that committed acts of violence and terror, however they have all either completely stopped or are taking steps away from violence. (By the way, the IRA has been performing terrorist atrocities for many years with direct funding from America - did Britain have the right to invade the US, because it was a 'sponsor of terrorism'? Likewise the Contra-rebels, the Taliban, Saddam Hussain and other less well-known USA sponsored terrorists, criminals and murderers) Back to the IRA, ETA and the ANC - why have these groups renounced, or are renouncing violence? What can be learnt from these conflicts that can be applied to the Palestinian/Israeli situation, and to the wider USA/Terrorism situation? (though it could be argued that the Terrorism situation is something that is being increasingly perpetuated by the US government as a tool for keeping the population scared and easily controlled)
If Islamic nations have anything to fear, it is the increasing paranoia and nationalism that is being whipped up and exhibited by the West. No wonder some of them have decided to take up arms in a futile attempt to stop the giant of the USA.
My worry is that when the money runs out (the US simply cannot afford to maintain its current foreign policy) there will be some very dangerous areas of the world that everyone else will have to tidy up.