Monday, November 28, 2005

Back on the Attack

So, back to the normal blogging. Greetings all. As I mentioned before, I’m back from travel and will try to resume my regularly sporadic posting. I spent quite a lot of this trip on ships/boats of varying sizes. While it wasn’t too bad, I am glad that I stayed away from the Navy. Anyway, I billed 100% of my time and took home some extra scratch. Nice. I apologize in advance as my posts will probably reflect a lot of recent history.

I was saddened to hear about the hotel bombings in Jordan. I’ve stayed at all of those hotels on numerous occasions. Seriously, this tragedy clearly illustrates the complete madness on the part of the terrorists. There is nothing defensible about bombing innocents. It is simply unacceptable in ANY culture.

Make no mistake about it, this is serious business in the Middle East. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the Arab world was aghast that an Arab would do this to another Arab. Arab on Persian (or anyone else for that matter), despite religious similarities, is completely acceptable. Part of the reason that Saddam was isolated in the Gulf (by Arabs) is because of his unthinkable invasion. These bombings are of the same flavor.

I have long said that when the Arabs are tired of the stress, death, and destruction that they will find the motivation to get rid of all these walking mental patients. The truth is that they are unaccustomed to this type of freedom. The protest marching in Amman is only an indicator of the increasing disgust for extremists. I don’t believe, however, that this bombing is the straw that broke the camel’s back. It will take much more to influence events over there, but I am heartened that the journey has begun, as it means we are closer to the destination.

Amman is one of the places that I love to go. Let me count the ways… first, Amman is beautiful. It is located at a high elevation and is therefore pleasant in summer and cold in winter. It is exotic and has hundreds of terrific restaurants and bars. The women are often stunning and not impossible to talk with. Actually, it has the flavor of Beirut, although muted. If you haven’t traveled to see Jordan, I highly recommend it. Random bombings aside, it is safe to travel there.