Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

8-2-90 . . . Iraq, which was involved in a long, bloody war with Iran until recently, has just invaded neighboring Kuwait, a small, oil-rich nation. The motives of the Iraqis are unclear. President [George Herbert Walker] Bush has demanded that the Iraqis withdraw from Kuwait, but gives no indication that he will back the demand with military action. The main interest of the United States is economic: preserving the flow of petroleum to the West. Already I have heard reports that the price of gasoline will rise as much as fifteen cents per gallon in this country, up from the $1.019 per gallon that I’ve been paying at Texaco. Fortunately I have a gas-efficient car [a 1989 Pontiac Grand Am] and don’t do much driving. The decreased supply won’t affect me much. As for the larger implications of the invasion, all I can say is that it’s a mess. The Middle East is a cauldron. Arabs and Jews have been warring for centuries. Neither will be content until it wipes the other off the face of the earth. Nominally, the Arabs want Israel (a Jewish state) to disgorge part of its territory (known as Palestine), but I suspect that this is a pretext. The fact is, these two religions (Judaism and Islam) are incompatible with one another and the source of innumerable conflicts. As long as there are people who are willing to die for their deity, and there are plenty, there will be no peace in the Middle East.