Geez. I had no idea how much response there’d be to this thing. I’ll get a comments button up, soon.

Sorry to have offended anyone with MidEast talk. It’s just been all over the place, lately, and I wanted to clear up some of what I felt was being too conveniently left out of most conversations.

One interesting fact that’s been sent to me – and that I’ve verified – is that about 70% of the people of Jordan are Palestinian. Too bad they have only about as much say in what goes on there as they do in the occupied territories. Wouldn’t it be sweet for the Palestinians to get not only the West Bank, but to consolidate it with the entire nation of Jordan. And then to win democratic rule?

I have a feeling there’d be a lot less conflict in the Middle East were we dealing with four or five democracies, unencumbered by religious extremists.

Democratic values toppled Monarchy rule in the 1800’s, it beat Fascism in the mid-1900’s, and then blew away Eastern European totalitarianism at the end of the century. It’s never pretty. (If only CNN had cameras at the bombing of Dresden.) Maybe fundamentalist statehood is the next to be conquered. And then, someday, if we’re lucky, corporate capitalism…