Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean
I also see it as a problem that the majority of these kinds of peace talks tend to focus on issues of economics and territory....or as Sarkozy said, trying to "achieve peace through economic development, political initiatives and providing guarantees for all stakeholders"...while essentially ignoring the larger, more fundamental issues at the core of the conflict. As I mentioned earlier, there are entire generations of people living in the countries surrounding Israel that have been raised on the belief that Jews are basically monsters who do things like drinking the blood of children to celebrate their religious holidays. Hell, they even had the Palestinian Mickey Mouse,
. "Economic development" and the like simply doesn't deal with the ingrained bigotry that drives much of the violence, and I don't see any lasting peace being achieved until the bigotry is dealt with. |
Well, if we are talking about bigotry, then Northern Ireland is another prime example. It is too easy to say it was just about the Irish killing the Irish. It really was much more complex than that politically and militarily, but it is important to remember the hatred between the Catholic and Protestant factions - a hatred that has been ingrained for centuries, not simply since the end of WW2. It still exists, but people have learned to deal with it in a peaceful way.
And really the only way to address this kind of problem is through dialogue and economic development so that neither faction feels that it is the "underdog" any more. Military force solves nothing and just begets further bigotry and violence.