The far future of the Middle East

[habilis]

By the year 2023, all advanced countries of the world will all be driving non-polluting hydrogen powered cars. Toyota has a couple right now that exhaust only water, not pollution, only water and that's it! Amazing. But what will the Arabs do when the world no longer needs oil in quantity? What will they do with themselves? If you think things are bad now, just wait till the money stops oozing out of the ground over there, and they will have nothing to do except strike out at the civilized world.

I'd say the Arabs have about 25 years to plan ahead and make it nice over there somehow, so they, and us, can have a secure future. Think it will happen?

I hope I'm around to see the day the Middle East has their own age of Enlightenment and joins the civilized world in the 21st century - with some lessons from advanced nations we could potentially be prospering together. Something's got to give over there sooner or later or we will have an all out war on our hands some day(hopefully not nuclear). There's just no nice way to tell these people that oppressing women and embracing state-run zealotry isn't cool. Hate isn't cool. Allowing yourselves to give in to the Dark Side isn't cool. The Blame Game isn't cool.

Or are your a fan of the isolationist "Hands Off Iraq" theory? Do you think the Arabs should be left purely to their own devices? Do you take the view of "Hey, as long as they just do bad things to themselves, keep it their own country and I don't gotta see it, then I'm cool with it"? That view seems just as dangerous as the proactive approach we now take. On balance, Iran, although now arming themselves with Nuclear weapons, may be a bright light for the Arabs. The people in the streets are sick of this way of life themselves, and seem to be taking matters into their own hands.

Use your crystal balls(pun intended) and what do you see?

[adambyte]

Uh... i could be totally wrong about this.... but does a hyrdogen powered car just derive it's energy from some other sort of fuel? it's just that it only emits water in the end.... I think we're still digging SOMEthing out of the ground... though, i could be completely wrong. Somebody enlighten us as to how this technology exactly works, before we make incorrect assumptions.

[Cat]

By the year 2023, all advanced countries of the world will all be driving non-polluting hydrogen powered cars.

LOL! Yeah, right, and the oil wells will be dry anyway ...

they will have nothing to do except strike out at the civilized world.

Historians discover, boredom is, in fact, number one cause of war.

make it nice over there somehow

Plant some roses, new paint, some cushions ... maybe a pool?

I'd say the Arabs have about 25 years to plan ahead and make it nice over there somehow, so they, and us, can have a secure future.

I'd say supercalifragilisticespiralidocious!

I hope I'm around to see the day the Middle East has their own age of Enlightenment

No, no, no: according to Civ3 rules, you can only have one golden age, and Mesopotamia (arab empire) has already had that when it built the "Cradle of Western Civilization"-Wonder in Ur...

joins the civilized world in the 21st century

Well, they could do with a calendar reform, couldn't they? Let's all join the jews, that already are in the 4000nds!

There's just no nice way to tell these people that oppressing women and embracing state-run zealotry isn't cool.

Yes there is! But, oh, yeah sorry, it's not written in "bellic", the official American Foreign Policy Language. However, when you level up, you can choose the "diplomacy"-feat, which will enable you to conversate with foreign countries without provoking a war. You can also choose "plant spy" from the menu and try to provoke a revolt ...

Or are your a fan of the isolationist "Hands Off Iraq" theory?

No: I'm fan of the "Save the planet: kill yourself!" - theory. Gaea 0wnz!!!!!

Do you think the Arabs should be left purely to their own devices?

I think, IMHO, that "the Arabs should be right purely to their own devices", but that would be nit-picking ...

"Hey, as long as they just do bad things to themselves, keep it their own country and I don't gotta see it, then I'm cool with it."

"Hey, as long as US bring death and destruction to others, keep it in their own country and I getta see it live on CNN, then I'm cool with it."

Hate isn't cool

No, indeed, but chrome, leather and black will never truly go out of style!

proactive

Mr. Habilis! Using eufemisms again! Tsk, tsk, tsk ...

On balance, Iran, although now arming themselves with Nuclear weapons, may be a bright light for the Arabs.

OUR WORDS ARE BACKED WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS! Now that will make some light indeed ...

Use your crystal balls(pun intended) and what do you see?

I see, I see, ... that the Grrreat Sarrrcasmo will be flamed!!!

Politics is like a chessboard: black and white, we against you.

That is, with several shades of white, grey and black, with some variations into red, yellow and blue, billions of piececs with continuously varying rules and turns and several thousend players on a quadri-dimensional checkerboard ...

Anticipating: No I do not think I'm funny. I think you are.

[habilis]

cat: you mean euphemism, and that's right, I'm damn good at it.

and about your lengthy rant, coming from you I take it as a compliment.

[chemistry_geek]

Well, I kinda see things like this: the good'ol USA is sticking its nose in places it really shouldn't be. I sure don't like hearing that X number of US military personnel were ambushed by Iraqi militants today... This police action is going to be our 2nd Vietnam scenario, but they're picking the soldiers off at a lower albeit consistant rate. The American public is going to eventually get angry with these events on a daily basis. IMHO, the USA has plenty to take care of right here. George Dubya is doing a "George Senior" by paying too much attention to foreign policy and not domestic policy. It'll probably cost him his re-election. I say, let the other nations of the world advance at their own rate, we're certainly not going to be able to successfully force this upon them, educate them, etc... with western ideas because their cultures are either not ready yet for these ideas or will flat out reject them for political and social reasons.

[Ugg]

Fuel cell technology is still in its infancy. Japan has made great progress and has a huge vested interest in it. They have little oil/gas of their own and are unwilling to fight wars to obtain it The best estimates are that it will be widely available in 25-40 years.

Some Arab states, well Abu Dhabi at least has taken its oil wealth and created a phenomenal business center. Morocco is also rapidly becoming more of an outpost of the EU than part of Africa. There isn't a lot of business that doesn't center around oil in the mideast.

While we may well use fuel cells to power our homes and our cars and computers, there is yet a substitution for plastic. See, Steve isn't so dumb after all, metal is the future! It's not just plastic but also fertilizer and a few hundred thousand other things that we use in our day to day lives that are made from oil. While we may no longer need to fight wars in order to drive our SUVs from our home in our gated communities to our job in that treacherous concrete jungle along that dangerous strip of asphalt, we will be fighting them so that we can have rubber tires, gore tex jackets, plastic pop bottles, etc, etc.

As far as the rest is concerned, the Muslim world is going to have to figure out things on its own and if they take a potshot at each other with Nukes well who are we to tell them not to. They know full well the consequences.

One of the biggest threats the arab world faces is that of overpopulation. With limited amounts of water and agricultural land its doubtful that they can feed themselves for much longer. Allah will provide, is often given as the reason for such large families. It might well be that the Arab/Muslim world will rule the globe based on that fact alone. Either them or the Mormons

It is an interesting set of questions but I don't know if there is any answer or if we should even propose one. We have done enough damage in the middle east. Maybe we should give someone else the chance to figure it out.

[doemel]

By the year 2023, all advanced countries of the world will all be driving non-polluting hydrogen powered cars. Toyota has a couple right now that exhaust only water, not pollution, only water and that's it! Amazing.

It's this kind of blind faith in technology that got us in trouble (environmentally speaking) in the first place. Yes, technology is not only bad and has made our lives a great deal easier, but, IMHO, you always have to know as much of a new technology's potential consequences as possible before you're going to embrace is. Fact is, you need to produce hydrogen in large quantities before you can replace your average gas guzzling SUV and it's gonna take a whole lotta energy to do so. Unless this energy is derived from alternative sources (wind power, solar power if we keep on developing it more aggressively i.e. if we invest more into research of alternative energy sources) we're back at the same problem we have today. Burning oil to produce hydrogen is only making the whole thing less energy efficient because you have one more step in the "energy chain".

I'm not going to comment on your point of view of the Arab world because I think it's arrogant and ignorant

[habilis]

Originally posted by doemel
I'm not going to comment on your point of view of the Arab world because I think it's arrogant and ignorant

Thanks. Taken as a compliment.