Thursday, January 29, 2009

Obama And The Muslim Cold War


From The Jerusalem Post:

The Middle East is gripped by a Muslim cold war, fiercer than anything since the 1950s. This deep political divide could stymie US President Barack Obama's well-intentioned efforts toward creation of a Palestinian state, engagement of the Iranian and Syrian regimes and quick withdrawal from Iraq.

Relations among the Muslim states of the Middle East have never been worse, not since the days when Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser sent his agents to assassinate political figures in Jordan and conduct a war in Yemen against the Saudi-backed royalists.

A razor-sharp cold war separates the moderate Arab Sunni states, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and most of the Gulf states, from an Iranian-led axis that includes Syria, Hizbullah, Hamas and, less importantly, Qatar.

Read more
....

My Comment: When I read an article like the one above, I am always scratching my head and asking myself the following question.

Do we in the West want to enter the hornet's nest that is the Middle East?

Unfortunately, because of our oil/energy dependency, we are going to be in the Middle East for a very long time. I just hope that the stings will not hurt too much.

No comments:

Post a Comment