Economics and Finance

Submitted by ellens (United States), Aug 30, 2013 at 18:42

It is surprising that Daniel Pipes focuses so little on the economics. Was the war in Northern Ireland really about religion? Not likely. Notice that the war ended when Ireland became prosperous. Too much to lose on both sides. Were the wars in Europe during the Middle Ages about religion? Maybe occasionally, but almost surely most were about booty, territory, trade routes and power.

The same is almost surely true here. These are wars between tribes over oil, pipeline routes, harbors or some such. It would be so much more helpful to know what the economic interests are in order to predict their behavior.

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