A former Lebanese (Christian) terrorist once told me a story (meant to be funny) about West Asian politics.
A turtle was swimming past the shoreline of the Red sea. On the shore a scorpion calls out,"Hey! give me a lift over to the other side." The turtle, wise to the way's of scorpions refuses. The scorpion begs him again, saying: "You think I'm going to sting you and kill you, but why would I do that when all your doing is helping me? After a lot of discussion the turtle agrees to give the scorpion a ride across the Red Sea.
As they get near the other side, they thank each other, the scorpion for the ride and the turtle because the scorpion had not stung him. At the other side, as they reach dry land, the scorpion suddenly stings the turtle. Shocked and dying, the turtle gasps, "why did you do that, all I did was help you?" The Scorpion replies, "Why? I stung you because this is the middle east, and that's what we do."
In the surreal, nightmarish world produced by western political agencies since 1919, the story makes no sense, because there is no more sense in that world. Every possible side has made promises and then broken them.
An Australian columnist wrote today:
The body of a little boy washes up in the surf on a Turkish beach is photographed and broadcast around the world. The world is appalled.Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/operation-rescue-the-christians-of-the-middle-east-face-extinction-20150906-gjg9p2.html#ixzz3l0BYqLaz
But what if the world were to see the real scale of the sectarian civil war dismembering the Arab world? About 12,000 children have been killed in Syria alone.
Twelve thousand children. This is the estimate of both the Oxford Research Group and the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights. The United Nations has a smaller but still horrific estimate.
What if the world were to see the faces of the thousands of young girls abducted and raped by members of Islamic State?
The world only sees glimpses of the atavistic bloodletting carried out in the schism between Sunni and Shia Muslims, compounded by secondary guerrilla wars between moderate and fundamentalist Sunni Muslims.
The wreckage extends far beyond individual tragedies and destroyed communities. To traverse the arc of nations in the Arab world is to traverse a disaster zone that is spreading, not contracting. Where once Australian tourists used to travel overland to Europe via Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, that entire route is now too dangerous. Much of it is a disaster zone.
Syria is finished. It will never be put back together as a single state. Eleven million Syrians have been displaced.
Iraq is now three states, Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish. The lines on the map of the region drawn by European colonisers have proved to be ephemeral compared to the real borders formed by religion, ethnicity and geography.
The list of failed states now extends to Libya, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The rest of the Arab states are dictatorships by various names, at best monarchies or emirates, with Egypt under military control.
There is no end in sight. The Arab spring was a Western fantasy. Saudi Arabia and Iran continue to mobilising resources to fund their proxies in the Sunni-Shiite struggle, a reason why the Saudis are pumping as much oil as they can and Iran is desperate to re-join the international oil marketplace.
Syria is thus the eye of a broader storm and the Muslim world is exporting its instability to Europe, via a mass exodus of people.
There is no more logic as different (Black) groups in western nations aid opposing groups in the west Asian nightmare.
Think of the stupidity evident in this British court case, (as reported in the UK Guardian):
A Swedish citizen is arrested by the Brits and charged with aiding a terror group in Syria. The case goes to court, and then collapses> Why?
Because the Syrian faction the man was accused of helping, was also being supported by British Intelligence. Further revelations in the court, would (apparently) have been deeply embarrassing for the British Government.
The west, reluctant to put their own troops on the ground, have been attempting to halt the advance of ISIS by bombing, Rambo Abbott the Australian PM, a deeply committed Christian, is now going to send Australians to join in that fun. At least one year ago, there were rumours swirling that the American government had been involved in arming and supporting the Islamic State group.
Here's today's headlines in, first, "The Guardian."
Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq
More details at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/03/us-isis-syria-iraq
and second, the "Examiner."
Obama ordered CIA to train ISIS jihadists: Declassified documentsLink to story: http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-ordered-cia-to-train-isis-jihadists-declassified-documents
A final question: Who is the turtle?