Deep down inside, I know you're bored...

Has the constant stream of news from Iraq and the thundering oratory of warning about the Mideast started to, you know, leave you cold?

Maybe it's because you are thinking clearly.

Western analysts are forever bleating about the strategic importance of the middle east. But despite its oil, this backward region is less relevant than ever, and it would be better for everyone if the rest of the world learned to ignore it [More of a great article]

How long can a crisis continue before it becomes simply the way thing are? I suggest 4 years - the duration of high school, a presidential term, the timing of leap years, etc. At this point then, what most of us have been fussing about in the Mideast is likely the way things are and are going to be.

Our tendency - aided by the media desperate to deliver advertiser eyeballs - to label every event catastrophic has been so amplified by ubiquitous communications that perhaps our brains are tuning out to save our sanity. And in our sane moments I think we would call some bluffs on crisis-mongers.

It might beat current strategies.