I've always thought World War III would start in the Middle East. I just never thought it would happen with other parts of the world falling apart, as well. Dub-yah has a huge task ahead of him, balancing Asia and the Mid-East. Now, I'm not a huge history buff concerning the Middle East, but I think there are some pretty basic underlying principles in the conflicts. I think it's difficult for countries to engage in the peace process when governments and parties are oftentimes based either (a) on a religious belief, or (b) the hatred of another group of people.

One of the best concepts America's founding fathers included in our country is the separation of church and state. Now, I know this is debatable, from the inclusion of God in the Pledge of Allegiance and our currency, but our country on the whole does not govern out policy and practices in the name of the Christian God. Now, I know certain politicians or political parties/movements may seem to have a Christian drive, but our country does not exist to appease this silent majority of America.

Could you imagine living in a state where this is the case? Hezbollah, the terrorist militant group and Lebanese political party literally translates into "party of God"... in their case, Allah. In Lebanon, only 20-something of a few hundred Parliament seats are held by Hezbollah, so the party isn't the political majority. However, since they get their weapons from Syria (who gets their weapons from Iran, which is basically a theocracy), then it's pretty obvious that whoever has the 'might' has the 'right'. And, in this unfortunate case, those with the 'might' want Israel off the map.

Again, it's pretty transparent that most Arab states in the Middle East feel that their land was taken from them to make the state of Israel. And, I'm not at all arguing with that assumption. While I could get far in to history and really get into a "who had it first" conversation, I don't feel it's relevant here. What matters is that for a historically significant amount of time, Israel has been a sovereign state, no matter its origin. Political parties or even whole countries developing their ideology based on the destruction of the "Zionist enemy" will only lead to more bloodshed.

So, my thought process is obviously not complete here. In short, I think that a war with Palestine, or even Syria or Iran would be more warranted that the invasion of Iraq was. A war would be especially warranted if Iran were to about to develop nuclear weapons. How do we know they're not just waiting for nuclear development to strike?

Of course, diplomacy is the desired solution to this problem. But, has diplomacy worked for the past couple thousand years?