[Skybird]

Regarding Irag and Iran two factors must be considered for understanding why the region is such a hellhole.

First, the war between Shia and Sunni, and the ethnic tensions linked to that.

Second the artificial borderdrawing by colonial masters from the West who set these lines on maps in explicit ignorration of ethnic distribution patterns on the ground, ripping apart what belonged together and forced together what does not go well together.

Bush sn's premature ending of the second Gulf War, was stupid, cynical, and short-sighted.

Bush jn's triggering of a war against Iraq while it had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, was even more stupid. The lies used to defend it, were blatant. The ammount of naivety and incompetent plannign for the time after, was breathtaking. The mess Iraq today is in, is a result of this dilettantism.

The new "friendship" between Israel and Arab nations, is not really friendship, but owes to the perception of a shared enemy, Iran, and narcissism of Arab leaders who want to boast with F35s. The general antisemitic sentiment against Jews are not affected by all this, Islam's hostility against Jews (any everything not being Islam's) lives on. The situaiton has a certain effect of containign Turkey, which slowly raises to one of the biggest troublemakers.