Israel's attack on Lebanon

[c.j.jaxxon]

You're right! But I didn't mean or say that it was equal. They (some jewish people) might think so. I've even ran into people in the 1990s who thought so.

[Sam Slater]

[quote]Yeah, and the USA were at the forefront of the North Sea Oil boom (hence the preponderance of US accents in Aberdeen in the 1970's/80's), so I supose the UK will have to hand back all the tax revenues from that! I take your point in good humour, but let's try to see both sides of the story.[/quote]

I wasn't suggesting Saudi Arabia should pay taxes to the U.S.A for finding the oil; only giving an example that the west has done good -as well as exploited- the middle east.

[quote]We are rich because of Saudi oil. Can you imagine petrol prices if there was no oil in the Middle East (another judgemental geographic description, btw, see below). So we benefit, they benefit...or at least we think we do, but we shall see given the long term effect of oil use seems less than beneficial.[/quote]

Yeah, we're richer, but so are they. They live in a desert landscape with nothing to give. They're now one of the richest people on earth. Without oil they'd have nothing, so the money they recieve from it means more to them than it ever would to us. Without Saudi oil we'd be poorer. Without Saudi oil, Saudi's would be destitute. They're the biggest benefactors of western technology & engineering., though I'm not suggesting we don't benefit either....

Maybe it would have been better if we'd never found Saudi Oil. We'd have had 88 years of research on alternative fuels !hmmm!

[quote]By the way, "3rd world" has been replaced in polite and rational conversation with "less ecomically developed country" (LEDC) which is both more accurate and less Western Europe/USA-centric.[/quote]

I'm not too politically correct I'm afraid. Short people are supposed to be called 'vertically challenged' these days, for christs sake! I mean no 'slur' or 'offence' when I call a poor nation a '3rd world country'. I say what I mean, and I mean what I say (or try to). I'm not out to offend, and no-one should take offence from a 'tag' that was never intended to offend.....

[strictlybroadband]

Yeah, my cousin is dating an Ethiopian Jew. Ethiopia is pretty close to the Middle East so was one of the first places that Judaism, Christianity and Islam took root.