Every war/conflict in the past 5,000 years has been over resources and trade routes. This is why ever since human settlement brought about a trade based economy, there’s been war/conflict in the Middle East. It’s why certain cities in that region go back a long ways. Jerusalem. Damascus. Baghdad. Tehran. Istanbul. Cairo. Religion, democracy, civilization, human rights and so forth are just the various excuses made to hide that every war is about resources and trade routes. Anyways, as long as we have a trade based economy, we should try to alleviate unnecessary suffering by providing new alternative land based trade routes that relieve long time choke points while spreading the wealth around to more places, thus hopefully lessening the wars and death over current trade routes.
1. Build two bridges to Yemen. One from Djibouti, and one from Eritrea. This would connect central, eastern, and southern Africa to the Arabian Peninsula. You could just build one bridge, from Djibouti, but it’s better if all the wealth and trade doesn’t funnel through one spot. Having both bridges spreads the wealth around. This means people & trade from Africa and Europe doesn’t have to pass through Cairo (Egypt) & Jerusalem (Israel) as they can go across at Djibouti/Eritrea and Yemen, up/down Saudi Arabia to/from Damascus and on to/from Istanbul.
2. Build a high speed ferry system from Somalia to Yemen. Somalia is too far from Yemen for a bridge, so a high speed ferry system provides another connection from central/eastern/southern Africa to the Arabian Peninsula.
3. Build a bridge from Iran to Oman. This combined with the bridges & ferries to Yemen creates a land based route connecting central Asia to central/eastern/southern Africa. This means that people and trade have an alternative to the Cairo-Jerusalem-Baghdad-Tehran route. It also provides, if ever so slightly, a little bit of hope to the Palestinians as Israel, and more so Jerusalem, become a little less important for Africa & Asian trade.
4. Build a bridge from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula to Saudi Arabia. This creates a new land based route from northern Africa to the Arabian Peninsula without having to go through Jerusalem. It also means people & trade can cut across into Saudi Arabia and then go north to Baghdad and up to Tehran to get to central/east Asia instead of through Jerusalem.
5. Build a bridge from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula to Jordan. This idea would seem pointless since it’s almost at the end of the bay, but it means people and trade to/from northern Africa would have three routes to take to/from central/east Asia and three routes to take to/from Europe. One is the current way through Jerusalem & Israel, another is across to Saudi and up, and the third being go across to Jordan and up. Two options is better than one, but three is even better than two. Trade between northern Africa & Europe, whether via Israel, Jordan or Saudi Arabia, would pass through Damascus. The two bridges from Egypt to Jordan and Saudi Arabia also means that people and trade between northern Africa and central/east Asia can bypass Jerusalem and Baghdad, instead going through the Arabian Peninsula to the Oman-Iran bridge crossing.
6. Build a bridge from Morocco to Spain. This would mean people and trade going between Africa & Europe have a land based route where they don’t have to go through Istanbul. Basically, in a trade based economy, the Gibraltar Strait connection is the holy grail. You could do all the other things, but in terms of land based connection, whether you go through Djibouti, Eritrea, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Syria, it doesn’t matter you’re still left with that choke point of trade between Asia and Europe called Istanbul, formerly known as Constantinople. The Gibraltar Strait bridge means there’s a land based connection between Africa & Europe that doesn’t require going through Istanbul.
So yea, you do those six projects, while it wouldn’t end wars in the Middle East in of itself, it should help by relieving current and long existing choke points of trade and movement. It would help spread the wealth around so it doesn’t get concentrated and bottled in the same few places, which has led to war after war after war over the same god damn cities and trade routes. The total cost of all those projects would run in the hundreds of billions, the logistics of building some of the bridges would be difficult since by themselves, a Gibraltar Strait bridge, a Djibouti/Eritrea to Yemen bridge, and a Strait of Hormuz Oman-Iran bridge would all each be the most amazing bridge ever built in the world. That said, I think the end result would be worth it.
Now just to be clear, this bridges to peace idea is only because of the trade economy. However cool it may be, it’s just a way to hopefully alleviate suffering as the real solution to wars is of course abolishing the trade economy.
adamkendall2 