The Only Consistency In The Middle East Is Chaos And Disorder

We think of America as being a divided nation with Democrats on the left and Republicans on the right. Then we have far right and far left, and there is a lot of gradation in between. While occasionally there are violent eruptions or hostile rhetoric between the groups, which leads to events like the recent assassination attempt on Trump, for the most part it’s just verbal taunting.

In the Middle East however it’s a different playing field. Life is cheap, terrorism is endemic and if you’re gay, your life has little value in most of the countries. Things are racing along so quickly in the Middle East that it’s hard to keep abreast of what is going on. The most recent event is the overthrow of Syrian President Assad by a coalition of rebels. Most would say good riddance to that man. He has engaged in barbaric activity including gassing his own people.

The events in recent years are not at all new. Historically, mayhem has been going on in the Middle East for a long time. Some of the groups who have passed through or occupied what is known as the Levant are Egyptians, Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Canaanites, Philistines, Romans, Ottomans and of course the modern states of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. Except for Israel, there are no democracies and most of the rest are unstable.

My father-in-law was with an Australian engineer corps contingent in Palestine in the Golan Heights during World War 2. He told us that Arab snipers used shoot at the farmers in the valley below. There is still today an old bridge from that era entitled appropriately enough, The Australian Bridge.

People in the West haven’t helped the jihadists. Most have been at the behest of Iran which got a bailout from Barack Obama and a nuclear deal which they had no intention of honouring. It’s ironic that Assad who was supported by both Iran and Russia has fled leaving his country in the control of a disparate group of jihadists, many of whom detest Iran. It’s an age-old conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. There is no way now to see how this will work out. You have radical Shiites, Sunnis, remnants of Al Quaeda and ISIS, some who want to see a Taliban-like state, Druze, Kurds and of course, Turkey which sticks its nose where it doesn’t belong.

Recently, Turkey’s rhetoric against Israel has been harsh and ongoing. Erdogan is seeking the elimination of Israel, as he seeks to reconstitute a neo-Ottoman Empire. This is a country which is a member of NATO. That is a joke. I flew on their airline last year—no more. Turkey has now expanded its radicalism and that is a shot across the bow to those asleep in the West.

The idea that Syria will now become a united, democratic country is laughable. There is chaos everywhere. It’s in reality a fragmented territory. When we bring in refugees from such territories you can bet you are bringing in many who harbor the value system that is endemic in the region. That’s why it is important to vet potential refugees to make sure they are not jihadists whose mission is to do us harm.

In Australia we have a foreign minister by the name of Penny Wong, who is either antisemitic or dillusional. She waffles on about a two-state solution. That idea is dead in the water. Who would consider setting up a terror state in their midst when 70% of the population supported the Hamas atrocities against civilians? People like Wong are just adding to the chaos. 

I’ll go back to what my mother always told me, “There will never be peace in the region”, Trump or no Trump.