What percentage of USA citizens really know...

[SHRED]

...what is taking place in the Middle East?

I am talking about knowing the geopolitical history of the region and incidents that have led to all this.
What...4-6% maybe?


Now juxtapose that with the strong feelings Americans have about the region and there in-lies the insanity.

[Lerkfish]

1. unfortunately, collective memory only lasts about 6 months here.

meaning in the US. Hell, people don't even remember that Bush promised to fire anyone involved with the Plame outing, you expect them to remember 1967?

[Ravenseye]

4. Wasn't there a hurricane or something?

I seem to recall a major U.S. city being utterly destroyed. People fleeing to all corners of teh country for refuge.

Hmm. Haven't heard much about that on the television later-ly. I guess it never happened.

:sarcasm:

You're totally right. People can't even fucking remmeber last year.

[NotGivingUp]

2. people spout off instantly in favor of israel...it is what we are ....

programmed to do.

[nealmhughes]

3. Unfortunately, I understand it all too well. I have an MA in history

and took a great deal of colonialism classes and did a lot of research on the end of the Ottoman Empire....

I've read every word that my late lamented hero Edward Said ever wrote...

Sometimes I wish I had not, and just didn't really know what was occuring or why.

Hell, in one class I taught of 2nd half Western Civ, I had to inform very shocked college freshmen that Israel was only a state as of 1948 and that Jerusalem was part of Jordan until 1967...and then they ask why King David's heirs aren't the kings of Israel now...

For dramatic effect, I used a map that had no political boundaries drawn on it, just cities and features. I called the area I circled "Greater Syria" and then gradually put in more and more borders...the kids were shocked when I put in who drew the lines where they were and why the put them there... Best question I ever had was "Why did the Arabs get the crappy part with no sea coast?" My answer was "Evidently Europeans think that Arabs love the desert..."
The second best question was "Why didn't the Allies give a big chunk of Germany to the Jews and make it Israel?" To that I had no answer.