The Middle East explained in one letter to the editor

[n2doc]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/the-middle-east-explained-in-one-excellent-letter-to-the-edi

[Arctic Dave]

1. Clear as mud, as they say. nt

[malaise]

10. Can't say it better than that

[kardonb]

20. clear as mud

THAT is why we should stay OUT OF THIS eternal mess !!! Let them solve their own self-made problems and ancient hatreds . Mayb som eday even they will get sick if this idiotic muddle they created .

[reusrename]

24. Not true. Not true at all.

We've been responsible for their "self-made" problems.

We installed the Shah and Saddam, not the people over there.

Although I hope it's not intentional, you've fallen into the trap of blaming the victim.

And that's sort of the same problem that exists for the thesis in the OP.

There really are oppressors and oppressed, and it isn't correct to look at them as equals.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

2. I thought I knew something about the Middle East ...

... then I read this letter.

[bemildred]

3. Well done. nt

[JimDandy]

4. K & R for the mess it is and the disaster waiting to happen.

[Aerows]

14. "the mess it is and the disaster waiting to happen"

Couldn't have said it better. Stirring in that is like poking at a hornet's nest and expecting that everyone won't get stung when you do.

[reusrename]

25. It took years of effort, with death squads lopping off heads at night, to foment unrest in Iraq.

The folks over there probably do just want to all get along. It isn't really poking a hornets nest, it's more like tossing a hornets nest into a crowded theater.

[OldEurope]

5. And he doesn't even mention Israel and Europe!

What a mess!

[Comrade Grumpy]

6. Thanks for straightening that out, Mr. Al-Sabah.

[Live and Learn]

7. Love it. nt

[littlewolf]

8. excellent .. and throw into the mix that there are tribal and family

fights that go back decades or more.

[hobbit709]

12. Centuries and more

They make the Hatfields and McCoys look like rank amateurs.

[Aerows]

15. They make the Hatfields and the McCoys look like

blood brothers. Capulets and Montegues would be bosom buddies compared to their situation in the ME.

[SDjack]

9. US State Dept: please read the letter. nt

[lastlib]

11. "when we understand this chart, we've won..."

[reusrename]

26. It's a simple matter to understand that it's bullshit.

Total bullshit. The narcotics are controlled by the insurgents? Really? After all that effort the BFEE went through in order to secure the narcotics they would just give it all away? Really.

[Bette Noir]

13. I had a wild fantasy the other day.

Suppose Israel helped Egypt come to a peaceful conclusion to their troubles?

Yeah, I know it'll never happen.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. That's OK. The US has a lot of kerosene to throw on that fire....again.

[Junkdrawer]

17. And THAT's the way, uh huh, uh huh We Like It....

If the Middle East stopped fighting each other, the West would be out on its ass in a New York minute.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. Any guide that fits in a nutshell deserves to stay there. nt

[MannyGoldstein]

19. Oil and religion makes strange bedfellows. nt

[RC]

21. There is money to be made.

And if you can hide that in the confusion, all the easier to make even more money, by playing both sides against the middle.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. See what happens when you beat your head against a brick wall?

[Scuba]

23. Perfect! Hope our Prez reads it.

[reusrename]

27. This is like putting the rapist and the victim on equal footing.

It's wrong. There are the oppressors and the oppressed. They aren't equals.

[jeff47]

29. And when the oppressed are calling for oppression of others?

The main problem with intervening in Syria is there is no "good guys" to hand the country to. Every rebel group has a track record of fighting and oppressing other rebel groups.

[reusrename]

30. I don't see it that way.

The problem isn't that they don't have enough domestic "good guys," the problem is that they have too many foreign-backed "bad guys."

[jeff47]

31. You're free to see it any way you'd like. But that doesn't change

the fact that there are exactly zero rebel groups who are not calling for the oppression of someone else.

[reusrename]

33. Most people aren't at all interested in oppressing anyone.

That's why the arc of history bends toward justice.

[jeff47]

34. Yet we're still talking about the actual rebel groups and their actual histories.

And they're all interested in oppressing someone. Which someone differs by which rebel group.

[BeyondGeography]

28. This makes me even madder at Obama

Sarcasm thingy added for those who don't know better.

[panader0]

32. That would be humorous if there weren't so many people dying.

I hope the US stays out of this. There seems to be no way to figure it out. What a mess, and it will get worse if we get involved.