Middle East Simplified

[scannon]

This really helped me understand the whole Middle East situation .

 

This is shamelessly stolen from the Comments section of a Canadian blog. It clears up the whole situation.

 

Confused about all the various players in the Middle East fiasco? Maybe this will help you sort it out...

 

President Assad (who is bad) is a nasty guy who got so nasty his people rebelled

and the Rebels (who are good) started winning.

 

But then some of the rebels turned a bit nasty and are now called Islamic State (who are definitely bad) and

some continued to support democracy (who are still good).

 

So the Americans (who are good) started bombing Islamic State (who are bad) and giving arms

to the Syrian Rebels (who are good) so they could fight Assad (who is still bad) which was good.

 

By the way, there is a breakaway state in the north run by the Kurds who want to fight IS (which is a good thing) but the Turkish authorities think they are bad, so we have to say they are bad whilst secretly thinking they're good

and giving them guns to fight IS (which is good) but that is another matter.

 

Getting back to Syria. President Putin (bad, as he invaded Crimea and the Ukraine and killed lots of folks including that nice

Russian man in London with polonium) has decided to back Assad (who is still bad) by attacking

IS (who are also bad) which is sort of a good thing?

 

But Putin (still bad) thinks the Syrian Rebels (who are good) are also bad, and so he bombs them

too, much to the annoyance of the Americans (who are good) who are busy backing

and arming the rebels (who are also good).

 

Now Iran (who used to be bad, but now they have agreed not to build any nuclear weapons and bomb Israel are

now good) are going to provide ground troops to support Assad (still bad) as are

the Russians (bad) who now have ground troops and aircraft in Syria.

 

So, a Coalition of Assad (still bad) Putin (extra bad) and the Iranians (good, but in a bad sort of

way) are going to attack IS (who are bad) which is a good thing, but also the Syrian Rebels (who are good) which is bad.

 

Now the British (obviously good, except Corbyn who is probably bad) and the Americans (also good) cannot

attack Assad (still bad) for fear of upsetting Putin (bad) and Iran (good/ bad)

and now they have to accept that Assad might not be that bad after all compared to IS (who are super bad).

 

So Assad (bad) is now probably good, being better than IS (no real choice there) and since Putin and

Iran are also fighting IS that may now make them good. America (still good) will find it hard to arm a

group of rebels being attacked by the Russians for fear of upsetting Mr Putin

(now good) and that mad ayatollah in Iran (also good) and so they may be forced

to say that the Rebels are now bad, or at the very least abandon them to their fate. This will lead most of them to flee to Turkey and on

to Europe or join IS (still the only constantly bad group).

 

To Sunni Muslims, an attack by Shia Muslims (Assad and Iran) backed by Russians will be seen as something of a

Holy War, and the ranks of IS will now be seen by the Sunnis as the only Jihadis

fighting in the Holy War and hence many Muslims will now see IS as good (doh!).

 

Sunni Muslims will also see the lack of action by Britain and America in support of their Sunni rebel brothers as

something of a betrayal (might have a point) and hence we will be seen as bad.

 

So now we have America (now bad) and Britain (also bad) providing limited support to Sunni

Rebels (bad) many of whom are looking to IS (good / bad) for support against

Assad (now good) who, along with Iran (also good) and Putin (also, now, unbelievably, good) are attempting to retake the country

Assad used to run before all this started?

 

...or not.

 

Hope that cleared things up.

[lucky dawg]

My head hurts.

[yellowss7]

Simple. Bomb them all and let God sort them out. :jester:

[coffee break]

There has been Sunni/Shia fighting since 600CE, I don't expect it to stop any time soon no matter anyone's best intentions. ISIL is just the latest form of intolerance.

[xcarguy]

The Good...the bad........I kept waiting for 'the ugly'. Yeah, now my head hurts too. :willy_nilly:

[jimrankin]

It's been said that religion is the opiate of the masses and it does seem to still be holding true. What we fail to see is that 99% of the trouble in the middle east doesnt have anything to do with "religion". It's all about the same things as everywhere else in the world. Power and money, mostly power. Keeping people stupid makes them easier to radicalize and become mindlessly led cannon fodder for the people who want the power. Dressing the desire for control and power up as "religious" just makes it an eassier sell.

[Kitcat]

What the poster (brilliant) left out was that Putin (bad) allowed his jets to veer into Turkey (good) which shot them down (good) and now Putin(bad) is threatening military action against Turkey (that's bad) which will trigger WWIII (really, really bad) since Turkey is our NATO Allie and we have to come to its defense, unless Obama turns out to be the big wimp (Which I am praying for) that conservatives always say he is (bad, but in a good way), and declines to do so (Really, really good).

Edited December 5, 2015 by Kitcat

[scannon]

 

Now I'm really confused. :ack:

Edited December 6, 2015 by scannon

[coffee break]

I've seen this place for a while, and I wonder, is this a recruiting center or what?