because it isnt about speculation, that is why. you simply dont understand global food policy. speculation is never the problem. lack of free trade is always the problem. particularly with food, where the US does in fact destroy everyone else and make them unabale to provide for themselves. but it just doesnt have anything to do with speculation. again, it has to do with anti-free market american farm policy. speculation, as part of a healthy free system, would actually be part of the solution. the opposite of speculation, price controls, would kill people, lots of people. and anyways, food is just a part of this, mubarek has many more problems than that. you are not stating the obvious. you are stating the partisan nonsense. you will claim that the right is responsible for anything and everything, up to an including the thoughts in the heads of violent murderers. this is because you have no idea what you are talking about and no real understanding of incredibly simple concepts. wrong. destruction of the global supply by american price controls and subsidy are the problem. i know, thats why i am telling you your politics are almost always stupid.
i was there for work last april. i interacted with many people all day for weeks. they were very nice, hospitable and inquizative. i did not get even a hint of fanaticism. women are close to equal (they work--even at the highest levels, drive, wear western clothes) and they are very cynical of their government (duh). i think there is very little chance they become like iran. but if they cant get an economy going they may end up like yemen. im very happy for them and hope they can persevere for the generation it will take.
Well, 1989 wasn't completely non-violent either (see Romania). And in '79 it was basically one country-Iran. I'm still intrigued by the ripple effects here: Tunisia, now Egypt...... This may very well be. I don't claim to be an astute student of Middle East politics, so if this a common occurrence, then you may be right. Again, I'm reacting to the timing with regards to events in other countries. Not disagreeing here, but as always these are complex matters. It may be starting out as a secular/political event, but you can bet more radical factions will try to find ways to exploit it. In the specific case of Egypt, though there is enough history to prove that it has been a secular based country for many years, so it might be difficult for anyone to radicalize events there. Of course, but I'm referring to the old "Cold War" tactic of propping up a government friendly to US interests, regardless of how that leader is perceived within his own country. Certainly this has continued in the Mid-East only here the enemy is radical Islam instead of communism. Mubarak would definitely fit that description. I'm not really thinking of them using oil as a weapon, but if you have a relatively poor citizenry in a country with rich oil reserves, you could make the case that one goal of a populist uprising would be to find a way to use that oil to improve the economic circumstances of the general public. That could potentially happen in many different ways, and most of them would not be good for the US consumer. However, you can make the point that history shows this has never actually been done, since the average person in most all Arab states is very poor. Doesn't mean that someone won't eventually figure it out, though.
Egypt is a waste! We gave them what 60B in foreign aid and the pres has 70B in net worth. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM WASTE!
Egypt is a key piece to keeping what little stability there is in the Middle East. We can't lose that. I know you like to think that if we just keep to ourselves, nobody will mess with us, but you are sadly mistaken.
You can't use that same argument for every country in the middle east. All we are doing is bribing the Egypt govt. and we get NO benefit. Egypt will continue to sell us oil. And I don't give a rat's ass if they want to go and blow up Israel. They have been sucking on the US tit for too long as it is. These countries can make their own destiny.
i wonder what the avg price of gas would have been for these past 30 years without the egypt-israel peace treaty.
Egypt is the largest and most influential Arab country. They are vital to Mid-east peace prospects for Israel. The Suez Canal is vital to the West. Your ignorance of international geopolitics is appalling. We get huge benefits from having Egypt as an ally. Egypt is not an oil producer, Einstein. Your grasp of politics is as poor as you grasp of history, geography, and current events.
Egypt does produce oil. In small quantities. But they also have the Suez Canal and that pipeline running near it. Lots of oil. We don't have to bribe Egypt for them to be our ally. Not to mention we don't have any money to do this. I guess we should just borrow money from China and then hand it over. I also stated I could care less about Israel. What you don't understand is our meddling has un-intended consequences of severity. WASTE!
We have to bribe Egypt just like we bribe Israel and half of the world. It gives us leverage with them that we would not otherwise have. Here is the good part. With both Egypt and Israel, most of the foreign aid comes in the form of military hardware. It's a way to spend billions to keep General Dynamics, Boeing, Lockheed, and dozens of other US weapons makers open and US workers working. No this money is budgeted. It is the unfunded mandates like No CHild and Medicare Prescription Plan that causes most of the borrowing. This is a problem you should address. Israel is important. I understand it well. I also understand that having no influence has unintended consequences that are far worse.
