UNDERSTANDING THE
MIDDLE EAST
A cranky opinion for
CRANKY OPINION SATURDAY
The following is the opinion of a
cranky old man with little knowledge of the topic opined. Opposing opinions are welcome and this week
are probably correct. As usual, no name calling
and that means you, you big stupid head!
One thing
important about this year’s election is how the candidates plan to act in the Middle
East. The Middle East is very confusing. There are many Middle East experts advising
the US how to act in this area. Most of
them cannot seem to agree.
It is clear
that we need and want oil that comes from this area. Other than the oil and not having planes fly
into our buildings or our citizen’s heads chopped off we really don’t give a
crap about this area. We won’t say that
because we really want the oil. One
thing is clear, whatever actions we have taken in the Middle East has done
nothing to improve the lives of the people who live there. We do not understand these people; they do
not understand us.
The following is a
summary of my understanding of the current situation in the Middle East:
ISIS is a group of religious fanatics
that want to convert everyone in the world to their fanatical religious
beliefs. They are brutal and ruthless. Al Qaida is another group pretty much the same
as ISIS except they don’t like each other and the Taliban are like ISIS and Al
Qaida and they will work with anyone that helps them defeat the Afghanistan
government.
There is a revolution in Syria. The rebels want to defeat the government and
ISIS, ISIS wants to defeat the rebels and the government. The Syrian government hates ISIS and the
rebels
Iran hates ISIS and Iraq and Syrian
rebels.
Russia likes Syria and hates ISIS and
the Syrian rebels.
Russia likes Iran and sells them
weapons
Libya hates ISIS and is a mess in
general
Iraq hates Iran, except they both
hate ISIS and are fighting together against ISIS
The US does not like Iran and Iran
hates the US
Saudi Arabia hates Yemen and Iran
Egypt is mostly a mess internally and hates Israel
Israel just wants to be left alone
Pakistan and India hate each other
Sunni Muslims hate Shia Muslims and
Shia Muslims hate Sunni Muslims
Afghanistan is fighting ISIS and the
Taliban and Al Qaida
The USA is fighting ISIS, Taliban, Al
Qaida and are siding with the Syrian rebels but working with Russia in fighting
ISIS who we sometimes call IS, except President Obama calls them ISIL and
most of the Mideast calls ISIS Daesh.
Palestine is not really even a
country. They want Israel to die as does
the rest of the Middle East. All of the
Middle East loves Palestine, except they don’t seem to do anything to help them
besides using them to hurt Israel.
Israel likes the US and they don’t
take stuff from us.
Everyone else hates the US except for
whatever stuff they can get from us.
Everyone hates Israel except the US,
and sometimes the US is not so clear on that.
The US tries to like everyone except
Iran and Syria and Libya
Turkey hates the Kurds and ISIS
The Kurds hate ISIS and some of
Turkey
The US likes Turkey, but Turkey
doesn’t always like the US and the US likes the Kurds but won’t help them
because we don’t want to piss off Turkey.
Jordan hates ISIS, and we like
Jordan…they seem pretty cool.
There are a bunch of other little countries
that have oil and are nice to the US so we help them keep their oil from bigger
countries.
Then some of the countries have
tribes that seem to act separate from their country and lots of these tribes
don’t like each other.
I am sure I
have a lot of this wrong, but the point is it is very complicated. Whatever we do is going to piss off a bunch
of countries, tribes and people. In the
last 30 years, whatever we have done has only made things worse.
My position
would be to pump so much friggin, fracken oil of our own that we don’t need to
give a rat’s backside what happens in the Middle East. We should just step back and except for
helping Israel if they need help we do nothing.
Let everyone sort it out on their own…might take a few centuries, but
still we need to butt out.
I probably
shouldn’t be President.
The preceding was the opinion of a
cranky old man and not necessarily that of management (except for the shouldn’t
be President part) …Mrs. Cranky.
I say we just drill a well very very very deep, all the way through the core of the earth, and come up underneath the Mid East and SUCK ALL THEIR OIL OUT FROM UNDER THEM! Then they can all go f__k their camels and their cousins and each other, I don't care. :)
ReplyDeleteYour explanation and understanding is about as good as anyone has
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious whoever drew the borders over there hadn't a clue
It's all the fault of the US, the UK and France, who drew the borders after World War I, and seem to have meddled in the area ever since!
DeleteI knew that...
Delete...but I wasn't going to open that can.
No matter what we do, it will be wrong.
ReplyDeleteHmm...well, I still don't understand it, but thanks for trying!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that America, and any other countries involved, should butt out and leave them to fight it out for themselves. Don't you get enough oil from all those Texas oil rigs?
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could all ride pushbikes for a while...
And we have idiots here who are against fracking, can you believe that?
ReplyDeleteThanks for making the matter so clear, Joe.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice if we could develop alternative energy to the point where we didn't need any oil but our own. We wouldn't have to be so invested in other country's politics, perhaps.
ReplyDeleteone huge hornet's nest with bees, wasps, hornets, flies, spiders, scorpions and gnats all living in it at once. and we just stir them up, apparently.
ReplyDeleteIt's too late now Joe. They are here and growing. They tell us often what they plan and many never listen. Islam shall rule the world. They mean that. They are not tolerant of any religion except Islam.
ReplyDeleteHave a fabulous day. ☺
All that hate sounds a whole lot like this country.
ReplyDeleteI don't know Joe, but you seem to have a pretty good handle on what's going on over there.
ReplyDeleteJoe for President!
I will second that!
DeleteObama should stay out of our politics too. I would like to see how Trump deals with it all. Who knows how he'd deal with it Better than Clinton, that's for sure. As long as the situation at home is okay and you get to keep Tony Blair, that's fine. IS hates everybody and we should wipe them out. They're just a bunch of no-hopers nobody would miss.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your concise & thoughtful summary; I now understand the Middle East situation!!
ReplyDeleteYep. I think you covered the key areas.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any idea what is going on over there and I am actually there on a semi-regular basis. Well, at least in the areas with oil.
ReplyDeleteSomething's gotta give. It can't keep going like this.
My understanding is that we really don't need oil from the Middle East. Our production has nearly doubled over the last seven years and the oil we import comes from Canada, not the Middle East. This is not to say we don't want their oil, but we'd all be better off eliminating our dependency on fossil fuel as quickly as possible.
ReplyDeleteMy head hurts now. I'm with Stephen and think we should find a renewable source of energy that only we could produce. Wouldn't that stir up the pot?
ReplyDeleteWow, read the comments above. Tells you where we are (nobody has a clue) to where we're going (we're already there, we're going left, we're going right, etc) and how very, very little we know about economics, the Middle East, and our place in the world.
ReplyDeleteVery informative, Joeh. thanks,
Mike
Now I wanna get solar panels for my roof and a windmill in my backyard and a Prius in my garage...
ReplyDeleteI agree; we shouldn't be that dependent on their oil and let them work out their own differences.
ReplyDeletebetty