What happens when you get yourself in the middle of a 3,000-year-old knife fight? The answer: Nothing good.

For a long time now, the U.S. has been actively engaged in the Middle East — bombing, strafing, killing and being killed. The financial and actual lifeblood of this nation has been spilled on the sands of that region without achieving any concrete objective whatsoever. I can count a bazillion reasons why the U.S. should seriously consider seeking a way out of the involvement there.

Here is my suggestion:

Build small wooden platforms in Jordan and Turkey. Those platforms would have small wooden huts on them, furnished with wooden furniture (all made in America, of course). Those huts would be occupied by U.N. diplomats who would, just before prayer time, go out with bullhorns and encourage the residents of those regions to desist in the madness and seek a peaceful resolution to their problems.

If the platforms were blown up, they (and the diplomats) would be replaced, with more American wood and other U.N. diplomats. That way, America would actually be getting something in return for its involvement in that godforsaken area.

Andy Bennett, Buckfield