Peace in the Middle East - A Solution !!

What could inspire the leaders in the Middle East to put aside their anger and resentment to reach a lasting peace accord? Besides long-term self-interest, that is?

They would need to overcome their previous commitments to hatred and nasty rhetoric, push aside the screams for blood from their countrymen, be able to figure out solutions where none were visible before - what would do this? What would work?

Apparently, pictures of women in bikinis causes men to act impulsively.

"It wasn't that the men were simply distracted by their sexual arousal, which caused them to choose more impulsively. On the contrary, they exhibited improved cognition and creativity after exposure to sexy stimuli." (see linked article)

So it's even better - pictures of women in bikinis cause men to act impulsively and better.

So this is the plan: get a bunch of Middle-Eastern women in bikinis decorated in the flags of the region to frolic in an adjoining conference room while peace negotiations are going on.

Miss Israel could braid the hair of Miss Egypt. Miss Syria could give Miss Lebanon a pedicure. You get the idea. And it would work.

It already has. When the leader of Argentina visited the UK after the Falklands Island war with his daughter Zulema Menem, much of the jingoistic opposition to the visit died down. She was dressed very elegantly and wore a miniskirt to the memorial honoring the British war dead from the Falklands war and shed a tear. That was enough to turn public opinion.

And she wasn't even wearing a bikini.

As a newspaper at the time put it: There's nothing that British punters like more than to wrap themselves in the flag and sing jingoistic songs except the sight of a pretty girl in a miniskirt. The quote is not exact, it is from memory and I couldn't find it on the web. But you get the idea.

We all like to compliment ourselves about how deep and sophisticated we are, but we aren't that complicated really.

An antidote to this tactic is a sense of financial security. So making these guys feel broke first would be an important part of the plan. Hard to do for Arab millionaires. Feeding them stale bread would make us look poor. I'd say a solid gold car, but any of these guys could do that if they wanted.

Aha! We could tell them that we have discovered an alternative to oil-derived fuel. And on top of that, we have discovered a huge ocean of oil in the U.S. Which goes back to what people have been hinting at for a while: without oil, we don't care if they all kill each other or not. Except Israel. So they need Israel, because that's the only country that Americans care about over there.

Syria is an Ally of the United States in War on Terror

According to a BBC article, Syria allowed the CIA to house kidnapped people the U.S. suspected of terrorism. They also allowed them to use "enhanced interrogation techniques," said Dick Marty, a Swiss politician investigating the whole extraordinary rendition program for a European human rights group.

Syria's assistance in the War on Terror is not something new. But this information, if true, shows that their level of involvement and cooperation is a lot higher than we have been led to believe.

Also, it poses an interesting contrast to the rhetoric of this Administration, which has been very negative regarding Syria.

Click on the title to this post to see the BBC article.