who hates who in middle east

conflict enlightened

“One of the enduring problems with certain societies in the world – and this is certainly true of a lot of places in the Middle East – is that the capacity for self-governance and self-organizing just isn’t there. It has to do with history.”

 

“Everybody in the Middle East wants to explain why they’re right.”

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P.J. O’Rourke

 

 

Ok.

 

If you live in America you tend to believe any and all of these things:

 

–          Everyone in the Middle East hates America more than anyone else

 

–          Muslims hate Christians more than anyone else

 

–          We can protect ourselves from terrorists in the Middle East by doing something in the Middle East

 

–          The Middle East is made up of one big Muslim war mongering horde under the guise of multiple borders with some country names

 

–          The Middle East is representative of a new conflict driven by recent foreign policy decisions

 

 

Shit.

 

I could keep writing but my head is beginning to hurt.

 

While I think about this topic a lot I do not write often about it because the Middle East is so complex and has so many historical aspects that it can get frustrating to try and make sense of a relatively confusing intertwined issue.

 

And then I came across this amazing infographic of “who hates whom in the middle east”:

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http://www.fastcodesign.com/3035595/infographic-of-the-day/who-hates-whom-in-the-middle-east?partner=ps02101rss

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Well.

 

I imagine my main thought to share is that while we Americans like to believe the world revolves around us … it doesn’t.

 

Sometimes <simply because we are the biggest & typically most proactively involved nation>.

 

But most times not.

 

So.

 

I will close after viewing the infographic one more time by answering the beliefs I began with:

 

Hugh McLeod popularity

Hugh McLeod popularity

–          America is not the most hated in the Middle East.

 

 

 

–          Muslims actually hate some other Muslims more than they hate America.

 

 

–          We cannot protect America from terrorist activity by doing something in the Middle East. Why? Because every time we do something it gives others in the area the opportunity to use America as a ‘reason for being.’ By the way … that goes for any non-Muslim country.

 

Separately.

 

The idea a country of 300+million can stop one terrorist or a small group of terrorists dedicated to doing something … is ludicrous. The implication behind that is we will always be smarter than the other guys. The ‘other side’ has smart people too. Bad people with focused intentions to do bad things are very difficult to stop.

 

Sadly … they will win on occasion.

 

 

–          The Middle East is a complex mix of countries with varying government structures within a religion that does not separate ‘church & state.’ Their religion is integral to their governing.

Also.

Americans like lines. Lines as in borders. It gives us some sense of order and ways to judge who is in the right and who is in the wrong. In some places in the Middle East borders, these lines we like so much, are sometimes blurry if not arbitrary. We need to remember, particularly in the Middle East, that countries are defined more often by ideas and not by borders.

 

 

–          The most recent conflict in the middle east was not created by America <which the thought America “created this” is actually such an arrogant pompous thought it makes those in the middle east even grumpier> foreign policy … our foreign policy may have stifled the conflict on occasion or exacerbated the conflict on occasion but the conflict has existed since before America ever existed. Our only true failing, with good intentions, was that as a new country with a fresh ideology we believed we could resolve the ongoing gg answers are everywhereconflict.

And in failing to do so <as anyone would have failed> we failed to step back but instead have not accepted the failure and have continuously tried to course correct <with ongoing zig zags of positive & negative effects of which our political pundits pick & choose the aspects they want to pontificate over>.

 

 

That’s it.

My Middle East rant for the month.

 

If you want to view my favorite Middle East post here you go:

https://brucemctague.com/a-new-map-of-the-middle-east

 

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Written by Bruce