When are my fellow countrypeople going to get over themselves?

The older I get, the easier my mind gets boggled. Sometimes I wonder just which planet I'm actually living on. It's becoming increasingly clear to me that it's not the same planet as my fellow countrypeople.

The most recent case? The lunacy surrounding the Obama administration reaching a nuclear deal with Iran. As one who lives outside the borders of the good ol' USA, I can tell you: all you're doing is making life difficult for the rest of us.

Just in case you don't know: there has been "trouble" (and I don't care how you define it) in the Middle East ever since the West got over-involved and decided that establishing the State of Israel and ignoring the Palestinians was a good idea. It was wrong then, and it's still wrong today.

And before all you think-you-know-it-alls start condemning me: I'm all for a State of Israel. I'm neither anti-Semitic nor anti-Jewish, but I am anti-stupidity and anti-blindness. Both characteristics you're showing everyone else. One of these days you have to grow up and realize that

1. Israel is a secular state; it is a nation, like France or China or even the USA. It's just a country.
2. Most Israelis may be Jews, but not all Jews are Israelis. There is a difference between ethnicity and citizenship and between either of those and religious affiliation.
3. There are more people who adhere to Judaism than are actually Jews. Judaism is a religion, not a nationality or even an ethnic distinction.

Now, I realize that I lost most of my readers in that list. The reason is that the phenomenon is more complex than many minds would like to accept. Be that as it may, we have to differentiate between secular, national interests and other interests.

For more than 40 years (very biblical, in and of itself), we've been agonizing over the Iranians. Those screeching the loudest now had no problems then, when their beloved St. Ronnie was illegally supplying them with both technology and weapons because we disliked Saddam even more. When we kissed Saddam and made up, it was the evil Iranians all over again. I know that most of you, in your innate and misguided sense of right and righteousness, believe that a whole people should be punished because of what their government does ... unless, of course, the rest of the world should want to punish all of the US because of what their government has done. In that case, of course, everyone would be screeching even more ... as hypocritical as that may be.

And just what, pray tell, are our "interests" in this part of the world -- other than oil, that is -- and why do we think we, as Americans, have any right to enforce them to begin with?

We now have the opportunity to "take it all down a notch", but that could possibly, conceivably, potentially mean that the USA blinked. And we all know, we can't have that. Whatever deal may have been reached, to the majority of my American friends, it was a sign of weakness, and you may never, ever show anyone, anywhere even the slightest indication of weakness. Our whole sense of self-worth would be destroyed.

Yes, that's how most adolescents think. Young people, not yet matured, not having found themselves all think just like that, and the intellectual adolescents of America are having their tantrum, again. It's time to grow up. It's time to not only think like an adult, it's time to start acting like adults.

If you all wanted to remain adolescent amongst yourselves, I'm not sure I would care, but what you do has a real impact on my life, but like most adolescents, you don't realize that your actions have big effects on others.