Hey folks,
So its been a while since I jumped in here and really gave my two cents, but I find it interesting that for over a decade now many members and people in society have predicted a large scale war / WWIII / near apocalypse, whatever you want to call it, in the Middle East...involving Israel, the US, a neighboring Israeli country, and probably Iran.
Well today, here we sit with the US accusing Syria of possibly using chemical weapons against its people and threatening to intervene, Israel likely to intervene with US support against a neighbor it shares borders with, Iran acting as a proxy with Hezbollah and supporting Syria, ongoing civil war in Iraq, civil war in Egypt, and the US on an ongoing "peace" effort between Palestinians and Israeli's.
I found it interesting that today I popped in here and almost no opinions on this situation. Feel free to post your thoughts here.
Me personally, I see almost all of the Middle East conflicts having some sort of interrelationships, and I see most of these relationships stemming from Israel's existence, over a century of foreign dominance over Middle East affairs and policy (US and Europe), and also the Middle East's internal struggle between government and Islam. I also had a very wise professor years ago in school who stated he had the opportunity to participate in mid-level negotiations between Israel and Palestinians in the mid-200s. To him, "it all comes down to my grandfather was killed by your grandfather," and we can never be friends. It was an interesting point that makes a lot of sense in any conflict. I personally feel that until these 3 main issues and this attitude about the history of conflict is solved, there can never be stability in the Middle East.
I personally believe the US policy in the Middle East is never really correctly identified. It is often confused with pure imperialism or goals of assimilating the Middle East with the Western World. Often we say its all about oil...I'm not denying that...but I am saying we don't care what type of regime we actually get the oil from...we just care that we get the oil.
The truth in my opinion is the United States in both its own self interest and the general interest of its allies works to intentionally destabilize the Middle East. Using NATO, the UN and most prominently Israel as its proxy, the US essentially helps perpetuate conflict in the Middle East to prevent continuity and progress which would make countries with perceived radical, Islamist or inhumane policies weak and powerless. Essentially, overthrow after overthrow and war after war actually strengthens the position of the US and its allies as we continue to move forward while many Middle Eastern countries lack the ability to advance into the future. Personally, I do not know how I feel about this policy; it is only my belief that this is the true goal of the US in the Middle East. I am not convinced that allowing the Middle East to adopt Islamist policies benefits anyone, even there own people. The joke has always been that Hamas always negotiates peace as "a ten year truce" with Israel. Why only ten years and not eternity? If I was Israel, I would be convinced Hamas wanted time to rebuild and attack me...if you lived in a country where if you lost a war you would lose your state, would you believe the same?
In any case, I think we'll bomb the hell out of Syria and create a failed state there and run periodic excursions in and out of there to help our allies. Essentially what we've done though is created a divided state like we have in Iraq. Syria will be in perpetual revolution for at least the next 15 years. What this does in addition to curbing Iraq and Syria is it keeps its neighbors busy too. I think whether we admit it or not we're prepared to take on the collateral from a failed state (terrorism) over the consequences of letting an Islamic fundamentalist country become powerful (nuclear Iran).
The only way WWIII breaks out is if Syria hits Israel and Israel sends in ground troops...Or if Iran hits Israel... The other big thing to look for is if Israel hits Iran's nuclear facilities, I believe after years and years of other people saying this will happen, that it will in fact happen this winter...Iran is getting closer and closer and Israel won't take it anymore...Obama has the foreign policy capital right now to condone an attack...he's done a great job of making Israel put it off the entire time he's been in office but he can only wait so long...
So its been a while since I jumped in here and really gave my two cents, but I find it interesting that for over a decade now many members and people in society have predicted a large scale war / WWIII / near apocalypse, whatever you want to call it, in the Middle East...involving Israel, the US, a neighboring Israeli country, and probably Iran.
Well today, here we sit with the US accusing Syria of possibly using chemical weapons against its people and threatening to intervene, Israel likely to intervene with US support against a neighbor it shares borders with, Iran acting as a proxy with Hezbollah and supporting Syria, ongoing civil war in Iraq, civil war in Egypt, and the US on an ongoing "peace" effort between Palestinians and Israeli's.
I found it interesting that today I popped in here and almost no opinions on this situation. Feel free to post your thoughts here.
Me personally, I see almost all of the Middle East conflicts having some sort of interrelationships, and I see most of these relationships stemming from Israel's existence, over a century of foreign dominance over Middle East affairs and policy (US and Europe), and also the Middle East's internal struggle between government and Islam. I also had a very wise professor years ago in school who stated he had the opportunity to participate in mid-level negotiations between Israel and Palestinians in the mid-200s. To him, "it all comes down to my grandfather was killed by your grandfather," and we can never be friends. It was an interesting point that makes a lot of sense in any conflict. I personally feel that until these 3 main issues and this attitude about the history of conflict is solved, there can never be stability in the Middle East.
I personally believe the US policy in the Middle East is never really correctly identified. It is often confused with pure imperialism or goals of assimilating the Middle East with the Western World. Often we say its all about oil...I'm not denying that...but I am saying we don't care what type of regime we actually get the oil from...we just care that we get the oil.
The truth in my opinion is the United States in both its own self interest and the general interest of its allies works to intentionally destabilize the Middle East. Using NATO, the UN and most prominently Israel as its proxy, the US essentially helps perpetuate conflict in the Middle East to prevent continuity and progress which would make countries with perceived radical, Islamist or inhumane policies weak and powerless. Essentially, overthrow after overthrow and war after war actually strengthens the position of the US and its allies as we continue to move forward while many Middle Eastern countries lack the ability to advance into the future. Personally, I do not know how I feel about this policy; it is only my belief that this is the true goal of the US in the Middle East. I am not convinced that allowing the Middle East to adopt Islamist policies benefits anyone, even there own people. The joke has always been that Hamas always negotiates peace as "a ten year truce" with Israel. Why only ten years and not eternity? If I was Israel, I would be convinced Hamas wanted time to rebuild and attack me...if you lived in a country where if you lost a war you would lose your state, would you believe the same?
In any case, I think we'll bomb the hell out of Syria and create a failed state there and run periodic excursions in and out of there to help our allies. Essentially what we've done though is created a divided state like we have in Iraq. Syria will be in perpetual revolution for at least the next 15 years. What this does in addition to curbing Iraq and Syria is it keeps its neighbors busy too. I think whether we admit it or not we're prepared to take on the collateral from a failed state (terrorism) over the consequences of letting an Islamic fundamentalist country become powerful (nuclear Iran).
The only way WWIII breaks out is if Syria hits Israel and Israel sends in ground troops...Or if Iran hits Israel... The other big thing to look for is if Israel hits Iran's nuclear facilities, I believe after years and years of other people saying this will happen, that it will in fact happen this winter...Iran is getting closer and closer and Israel won't take it anymore...Obama has the foreign policy capital right now to condone an attack...he's done a great job of making Israel put it off the entire time he's been in office but he can only wait so long...
