Re: Current ME politics - when were they never current?
I lived & worked in various states in the ME and North Africa for about 10 years from 1974 to 1984 and I saw so many changes taking place then and often wondered just how far it would go before there was a real backlash against all the apparent liberalism.Re: Current ME politics - when were they never current?
As an interesting aside [and I don't wish to turn this into a religious thread] but if christianity had not developed [despite its own wars] and we had all followed Jewish religion then perhaps we too would be living in this harsh world that so many Muslims find themselves in - after all the letter of Jewish law and practice is quite harsh too!Re: Current ME politics - when were they never current?
All this talk about the inherent volatility of the Arab/muslim world really fails to recognise the real causes. One is the split between the two main sects of course. But more relevant is the division of the old Ottoman Empire after WW1 when the British & French governments simply drew almost arbitrary lines on the map to create hitherto non-existent states - Iraq included. These state boundaries took no account of local sensibilities, and were simply imposed. Not only that, we installed a clutch of puppet rulers. These artificial states have since operated under a series of regimes who have never reflected our own western aspirations but we were satisfied as long as we exercised exonomic control ie oil production. When the pan-Arabist movement developed after WW2 in response to the creation of Israel, and reflecting Arab nationalism, we did our best to oppose them - most obviously in the Suez crisis and the demonization of Nasser. Ironic that the USA supported the Arabs against us at that point.Re: Current ME politics - when were they never current?
Obama has just said that he is NOT going to send US troops back. His words.. "They are going to have to do this themselves" Of course he has asked his National Security staff to come up with any options.. I think at the very most.. a US air strike. I just wish he would let them be and do what they have been doing for 1000 years. I'm just disgusted that the Republicans are blaming Obama and his ending the Iraq war for something that was going to happen regardless.... the minute the US left and no matter who was president at the time.Re: Current ME politics - when were they never current?
Re: Current ME politics - when were they never current?
Re: Current ME politics - when were they never current?
Robert Fisk writing for the Independent has a clear view of all the politics and reminds us not to forget the role that the mighty Saudi Arabia is playing as well as quiet and suposedly benigin Qatar and even the almost forgotten Kuwait. These wars still remain wars of brother Muslims against their own kind who have divided loyalities that as Stem as suggested between Sunnis and Shi -ites [the story of how this occured is an interesting one to read and really a must to understand this hatred between them all]Re: Current ME politics - when were they never current?
Here's your chance to show your patriotism . . .
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