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Trouble in the Middle-East

Agree. I get the feeling that, apart from the more extreme and aggressive sections of Islam, the dominant factor is not religious, theological, but an us-and-them thing based on ethnicity. I wonder, too, to what extent there is identification with a "nation." Would a Syrian feel he or she is "Syrian," or would the ethnic/religious group come first?
 
PaulMB said:
Just started wondering what a Kurdish State would look like. Googling, I came up with this:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wo...-Kurds-A-users-guide-to-Kurdish-politics.html

Which was pretty disturbing and I immediately thought of Lybia after the fall of Ghedaffi.
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Paul,
Problem with "The Telegraph" is the uncritical way they swallow information, especially if it comes from a "an unnamed security source". If you took them to a Mayfair club, told them you worked for mossad and you were worried about the Iranians working on killer robotic hedgehogs they would more than likely print it.
 
That may be, but they could not have invented that the major Kurd factions are based on "clans." Or could they?
 
PaulMB said:
I'm amazed by the lack of interest in this thread. A huge disaster is taking place directly involving 2 countries, plus thousands of ISIS people now roaming around, plus the prospect of hundreds of thousands of refugees, plus involvement by the Russians and the West, and where are all our armchair statesmen who always know who the good guys and bad guys are?
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I'm not, most 'western' people do not understand the issues in the Middle East and as religion, ethnicity, economics and politics have all become mixed up in a media reported soup and there is very little chance they are ever going too, one would have to study the various histories of the various peoples and then try to decipher the 'truth' of who exactly are the bad & good guys ( nigh on impossible ).
In many ways a bit like N.Ireland & ROI & GB/UK, most people haven't a clue IMHO
 
russel said:
So what?, Scots have clans.
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Yes, and they used to fight among themselves like mad. As once did the Tuscans.
What I'm trying to say is that much as it would be wonderful for the Kurds to have a State all to themselves called Kurdistan, in the improbable event that this came to pass one cannot exclude that they would then fight among themselves for its control. Look what happened in Lybia; Gedaffi fell, everyone said "Good riddance, now we'll help them set up a nice,peaceful, stable, democratic country and do business." Instead it immediately fragmented into tribes and clans trying to murder each other.
I'm not saying "This is going to happen," but am I allowed to wonder?
 
It seems the part about ISIS captives escaping and the Kurds getting the blame is coming to fruition.
Any Ideas what is going on in the central and southern parts now that ISIS is sort of `defeated` is it safe for civilians to return home and rebuild?
One thing I have wondered is that al-Assad has been vilified by everyone, before this all blew up there were all manor of people living there getting on with their lives, businesses together as `Syrians`
One part of the populace went all psycho, troops went off the deep end and we have to remember that in this part of the world, violence, revenge and avenging is historically how everything happens.
Weapons seem to grow on trees out there and violence quickly escalates. Has he been deliberately over demonised?
Ive never been sure that he would used chemical weapons in full view of the world and there are people who would go that extent and martyr/murder their own people as quick as they would a westerner to gain their own goals.
Sadly you see similar all the time a bit further south on the map
 
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