by Philip G. Coggin

Created on: June 21, 2008   Last Updated: September 01, 2008

Will the current peace process in the Middle East yield lasting results?

When we went into the Middle East it should have been realised that the culture the troops (Western, American or any other nationality) would face is not anything to compare with their own.

This area has been at war, one faction against another, country, religion, financial status, for as long as it is possible to go back in to historical archives.

Almost anything can trigger a war or a dispute in almost any of the Middle Eastern countries, be it territory, religion, oil or just simply a minor slip of the tongue.

It is difficult to imagine a lasting satisfactory agreement over almost any form of dispute. There is so much corruption, poor education and mal governing that a solution is very hard to foresee.

The men and women sent to the Middle East to bring about some sort of calm and help to initiate some form of self-governing with a western type of democracy is I feel quite simply Pie in the sky'. Any leader who thinks this is possible without great losses on both sides is clearly in serious need of psychiatric help, and further, imagine that a time limit can be placed upon an end to violence and disruption the same applies.

In a country where the culture is so deeply steeped in religion and that religion not only makes serious demands on the individual to behave and react in a certain way, the lives of the subjects who practice this form of fanatical worship are indoctrinated by their parents from the very beginning of their lives, also the cultural pressure laid down by the peers of the parents are so great and forceful that choice of behaviour is not an option. The religious belief pressed upon most eastern peoples is a way of domination and control; it is not unbelievable since there is so much clear evidence, that there is also poverty and in many countries serious poverty too.

If you do not agree with the facts as written then why do people actually kill themselves in the name of a religion and leave their family without their presence, another question that must be asked is: Why do people feel that to lose their children to a religious crime or act of killing is some form of blessing or triumph, when we should be protecting our offspring's not encouraging them to kill them selves or to kill and maim others. Should not a religious belief be a way of protecting its followers and not reducing them by encouragement to murder and suicide?

I truly believe and I know that most people with a conscience

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>