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What is this guy on? Like, Britain wouldn't be interested if France, for example, was invaded and reorganised by China, for example? (if you see my analogy)
Not only is Iraq now well on the way to civil war, but this stupid invasion is also likely to destabilise the whole region as Iran, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait all pile in to protect their national interests.
It was always bound to have repurcussions around the world. We all knew that. However, I still feel shocked and helpless and ashamed of my government. If only Tony Blair could have listened to his own advice then... Chaos? It is a complete disaster.
One thing is clear. Iran is safe from invasion for the forseeable future. To misquote Oscar Wilde if I may, "to invade one muslim country is unfortunate, to invade two seems like carelessness, to invade three, well, it's looking like an obsession." The US is just not strong enough to fight a long drawn-out war over the whole area from Iraq to Afghanistan, despite it's military might, because it would be fighting the whole of Islam. It just doesn't have enough soldiers, and couldn't count on help from anyone (even the closet Tory Blair will be gone soon). Plus the US electorate wouldn't be able to stand the casualties from such a war so far from home and would sooner or later vote to quit.
No wonder Iran is taking the opportunity to acquire nuclear weapons. And why shouldn't it? There is no golden rule that says only America and Israel can have the Bomb. That is just a rule made up by America and Israel.
What is the point of patriotism? We are all one race in one world. A bit of physical land with sea/ocean dividing us makes no difference to anything at all. Why should you be proud of being born in one place? It means nothing to me. We should all stand together as one race, the human one. And that case there is no need to hate or bomb each other at all.
I should say that most, if not all, international conflicts, and a large number of internal ones, including interpersonal ones, are about land. I think this is inherent in our animal make-up - you try getting past those geese!
Patriotism is something slightly different though; patriotism is whipped up by those with a political agenda (defend your land FOR MY BENEFIT). Who was it said that "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel"? I guess we will always have patriotism as long as we have people who feel the need to be flag-waggers.
Conflicts or wars are usually about ownership (i.e. money or land) or power.
And as for patriotism I think we should ditch all flags.
You are right though we will never see then end of either, money greed and power and territorialism (which leads to ownership of land - my land/your land) will stop it. My views are very idealistic, I realise that.