http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20020422-8855812.htm

gentlemen,

we are headed into deep doo-doo.

what we have here is a nuclearly armed mad man (about 300 boosted fission/fusion warheads now?) who intends to seize his neighbors' lands.

we have a US population most of whom can't even identify the relevant areas on a map, and whose understanding of the current conflict extends to no more than "they've been at it for thousands of years"

we have a media that won't report the facts, and we have political leadership that for a good part fears taking sensible action...

we import over 50% of oil from Israel's neighbors in this region. Saudi Arabia already quite openly finances Palestinian armed resistance, and this policy will become universal shortly among those in the region...

we have tehcnology for weapons of mass destruction spreading, eg bin Laden's biological warfare lab and (minimally) his nuclear waste dump, and the example of the Tokyo subway bombers at hand as regards chemical warfare agents

i am trying different techniques to stop thinking about this mess, but none of them are working very well...

ep