Middle east mind blank.?

Question

I want to understand what is going on in the Middle East but whenever the world news is on and they start talking about it my eyes glaze over and it sounds like the teacher on Charlie Brown. Is the network broadcasting some kind of mind control signal that keeps me from understanding? Is it just me or can anyone else make sense of it?

Answer 1

The problem with your understanding is mainly of geography. Like most people don't understand Africa too. This is because its very big so like the middle east, it really depends on which area you wanna know about. As a whole, the middle east is made up of several countries. So when the news comes on next time, bring out your map and see which bit they are talking about. This simple procedure will help you understand it all.

You noticed I did not even try to enlighten you on the middle east? This is the point - it will take like 4 hours of solid lecture and note taking to see the picture.

Answer 2

The middle east is politically an extremely complex region due to its position at a crossroads between Europe and Asia as well as the confluence of many of the worlds major religions (and sects within them) as well as ownership of the majority of what is probably the worlds most important commodity right now - oil.

It is hard to meaningfully address your question since there is so much going on in the middle east.  You cannot hope to understand it in a week or even a month.  You need to follow it for a long time and immerse yourself in the nuances to really get to have some sense of familiarity. It helps, in my case, that I grew up there.  It does not help that unlike the US, Middle Eastern culture is ancient and the peoples of the Middle East still draw upon their ancient culture as a source of current conflict.

While I won't try to really explain since it would be absurd to try to encapsulate it in a few words I will try to list what I think are some of the drivers of Middle Eastern geopolitics:

- The Arab vs. Persian divide: probably the oldest source of friction is the historic dominance of Persia (now Iran) as a source of a great ancient world civilization which has not been  partially replaced by Arab dominance - historically Persians regarded Arabs as backward nomads, now they have more money and are more powerful

- Sunni vs. Shia islam. There is some overlap with the Arab vs. Persian divide but while most persians are Shia and most Arabs are Sunni there still are a lot of Arab Shia. This is a big part of the cross-currents in Iraq where Iraqi shia are in a majority and are having their loyalty tested in the tug of war between Irani Shiites and Arab Sunni. Overall the identification with Arabs is stronger, but it is probably hard for Shia to completly forget the martyrdom of their founder many centuries ago and years of domination and oppression under Sunni rulers. Shia vs. Sunni splits also play a very prominent part in the current internal political struggles in lebanon. But that is further complicated by the next item.

- Jewish vs. Muslim: Though this is much talked about this is historically very recent. Jews and Muslims lived as neighbors and good friends probably till the end of the second world war and had european christians as common enemies. That obviously is not true any more.

- The Crusades: European christian attempts to conquer and subjugate the holy land have left a scar that will probably not heal in our lifetime. The wars exacted enormous cost on the local people and the defeat of the crusaders was a historic triumph that still flavors the islamic memory of the region today. Which is why it was disastrous for Pres. Bush to use the term "crusade" as a figure of speech when describing the fight against terrorism. It brought back all the wrong memories.

- British/Ottoman carving up of the middle east. At the end of the second world war the british carved up the remanents of the ottoman empire into nation states that did not necessarily historically make sense and weren't in keeping with local religious and cultural affinities.  One can debate endlessly about whether this was right and if there was a better way to go.  For example, bottling a large Arab Shia, Arab Sunni and Kurdish Sunni population into the same nation  - Iraq - was almost guaranteed to produce conflict at some point.  Particularly so when the British left Iraq not as a democracy capable of reconciliation and nation building, but left it as a subservient monarchy that was more likely to serve british geopolitical interests.  There are numerous examples like that.

Those are key things off the top of my head.  But one can go on for hours about other factors like the artifical creation of the house of Saud & the hashemite rulers of Jordan, the breakup of Lebanon & Syria and myriad other factors.  That plus the legacy of various invasions, world wars, etc. that have torn the region apart for centuries.

I know I have not solved your problem but hopefully you have a better understanding. All these things may seem like historic things that happened a long time ago but believe me, they are still fresh in the minds of the region and still color how they view the world today and ultimately influence the news you see on a daily basis.