re: #250 ralphieboy

Sounds fine.

Face it: the Middle East is a politically unstable, socially backward part of the world.

Our dependence on their resources makes it difficult for us to put any sort of pressure, such as economic, social or diplomatic, on them to reform and modernize.

The less we have to do with that region the better.

The underlying assumption that the US has ever cared about reformation and modernization of ME societies is on shaky ground. I don’t think that US policy was ever focused on much more than securing oil flow. But that engagement contains a huge policy “nut” of maintaining regional stability, regardless of the nature of individual regimes. That’s how we end up in bed with Wahhabites.