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Peace Through Commerce?
If you were around, in the United States of America back then, remember the war in Vietnam.
I grew up watching the Vietnam War and its protests and conflicts that tore Americans apart on television; and hearing the big kids in the neighborhood stressing over draft lotteries; and the statements, arguments and insults traded by the grownups at family gatherings and various life cycle events. By the time Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City, I had just entered high school.
Now quickly bring yourself back to today: “U.S.-Vietnam bilateral trade has grown from $451 million in 1995 to over $90 billion in 2020. U.S. goods exports to Vietnam were worth over $10 billion in 2020, and U.S. goods imports in 2020 were worth $79.6 billion. U.S. investment in Vietnam was $2.6 billion in 2019.…”
That is one way for reasonable human societies to get beyond violent and seemingly intractable conflicts.
One upon a time in the Middle East, back in 1998:
Appropriately named the Oasis, the casino offers precisely all those immoral delights that the religious have sought to prevent Israelis enjoying.
An Austrian company is behind the huge complex — backed by unnamed foreign investors and some Palestinian money — and is keeping the entire project so under wraps that even the Palestinian Minister of…