abaya

I must ask, have you been to that run-down, boarded-up part of your nearest big city? And if you have been there, have you gotten out of your car, walked into a store, and talked with people standing on the street or working in the grocery? I mean this in the literal sense. Or do you live in fear of what goes on in the ghetto?

I am not saying that you are wrong in your analogy, but I must ask if you understand *why* that section of the "city" has become what it is. It hasn't always been that way, and most people there certainly don't want it to remain that way. And yet it persists.

There are reasons for this... but no two people on this board will agree to what those reasons are, depending on one's political leanings. An unfortunate armchair predicament... for as we sit, secure in our "wealth" and "freedom," the ghetto persists and becomes infected. And the fear and violence grows.

Welcome to politics. Who are "they" that you are talking about? If you are referring to the OP, he is Lebanese, and there is not a drop of oil in that nation. And believe me, having been to Lebanon recently, I assure you that there is *plenty* that "they have over there" besides oil.

Granted, this thread is about more than just Lebanon (and more than the Middle East; I would include most of the rest of the world, especially developing countries, in the "they" who hate "us."). But I find it extraordinarily unhelpful to reduce the qualities of an entire region in the world to "what else have they got besides oil?" That is, precisely, one reason why "they" hate us.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran