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Dutch Wrote: Fareed had a great program on Sunday on CNN. He said : An Iraq nor Syria really exists anymore; The borders drawn after the first WW are long gone. That area will become a kind of no-mans land; desolate and destroyed to its core.
Fareed is by far my favorite major news commentator. I wish there were 100 more journalists on national television that were like him.
And I agree with his point of view. The partitioning of the Ottoman Empire to the European Powers, specifically France and Great Britain, carved up borders liked a jigsaw puzzle. Freedom movements popped up almost immediately after these two countries came in and all of a sudden the region was thrown into a constant state of instability.
Dutch Wrote: All of this is caused by our stupid foreign policies, by invading a country without any thinking of the consequences. Just run in there throw bombs and leave without setting up a structure or a plan for rebuilding/governing a country, like Bush and also Obama forgot. The total stupidity of the US was that they dissolved the whole existing Government structure including the Iraqi Army. However our stupid country still thinks you can rule the world just with bombs and money. Now it will bite back in a huge way. Congratulations America!!
Our "stupid" foreign policy had nothing to do with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and European dominance over the land for the next forty years. It also had nothing to do with the schism between Sunni and Shi'a Islam.
What's going on today, while partly America's fault, was brewing long before we ever put one American boot on the ground in the Middle East. The Sunni-Shi'a disagreement, if I can use that word, has been going on since the Prophet Mohammed died in 632 AD.
Shi'a Muslims who live in Sunni governed countries are marginalized and are typically the poorest members of society. On the other hand, Sunni Muslims who live in Shi'a governed countries are marginalized and are typically the poorest members of society. ISIS is a sect of Sunni's who follow Wahhabism; Iran is a Shi'a majority country that is fighting ISIS.
What's going on in that part of the world is far more complicated than just saying that it's Americas fault. This is a fight that's been brewing for centuries. It's almost a carbon copy of the European Wars of religion that ravaged that continent for 120 years. Let's hope the Muslims can figure out a way to find peace between the factions faster than that.