April 04, 2002
Too Busy To Come Up With Anything Better

Historians already record a Six Day War, a Seven Years War, a Thirty Years War, a Hundred Years War, and probably some others with similar names that I've forgotten. I suspect that we will some day have a parallel name for the repeated attacks on Israel by Arab nations and their homicidal NGOs. Given the simmering hostilities -- the 'phony wars' -- that have filled the intervals, the Six Day War and the other major Arab-Israeli conflicts hardly count as separate wars in any real sense.

Even rounding off to the nearest multiple of ten, the continuing Arab-Israeli conflict would have to end very soon to be called the Fifty Years War. At this point, a Sixty Years War is the best we can reasonably hope for. If everything works out as well as possible, six more years might just about suffice to turn Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine (however defined), Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia -- a depressingly long list -- into some approximation of normal countries. By that I mean countries that, however poor and corrupt, at least do not massacre or brutally oppress their neighbors' citizens or their own, or send arms, money, or recruits to those who do. I can dream, can't I?

As for the other kind of dream, Gunner20 suggests that we start calling Saudi Arabia 'Sandland'. I think we should start dropping hints about what could happen if the Arab nations ever get their wish for another regional war or an 'Arab bomb'. The Empty Quarter might easily become the 'Empty Half', or the 'Empty Three-Quarters', or worse.

Posted by Dr. Weevil at April 04, 2002 10:00 PM