This was an interesting read about the middle east. It doesn't have the hectoring tone of a diatribe and it looks a lot like what I used to read on the siprnet. I have never heard of the coming water wars of the middle east but in contrast to the author I suspect high explosives will be involved in Sudan if not Turkey.
IIRC, Iraq was rumored to have the 4th largest military in the world right behind US, the Russians and Chinese. It appears that all of that is now gone and they are pretty much helpless against their neighbors Iran and Turkey. IIRC, Turkey had the largest military in NATO except for US. I wouldn't care to tangle with the Turks. My first soccer coach in high school was a Turk and we played for blood. As I recall, he was the only teacher in Huntsville High with a Ph.D and was properly addressed by all of us as Dr. Akbi.
It is an interesting experience watching almost the entire arab world fall apart over the last 5 years. It was monolithic in my youth as OPEC geared up and it appeared seamless for decades until all of a sudden Jimmy Carter managed to bring Egypt and Jordan to the table and finally get a lit peace for Israel. I notice the article didn't go into the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Israel and the potential threat they both share getting snuffed by Israeli fighter bombers getting clearance to fly over Saudi air space enroute to targets in Iran.
Iran is dabbling deeply in every arab state and they resent it, a lot. The author made repeated references to America's withdrawal from the realm of future conflict and while it didn't appear to be angry it still carried some of that as he wrote that Russia moved into the vacuum. Well, we moved into the vacuum the Russians left once and that is a colossal mistake. Let them enjoy playing with the arabs for awhile and they'll find it is a lot like playing with the Afghans.
OTOH, reading this kind of thing does make me wonder if one day I'll wake up and somebody will call and tell me that Washington was nuked overnight. That was how my day began on 9/11. I got a call at home telling me to turn on the tv.
9 comments:
That column is food for thought, and no mistake. I was unaware of the water shortages in those regions.
I wonder how much is actual shortages, and how much is mismanagement, whether from incompetence, or intentional acts, to gain political advantage?
made time this morning to slog thru the article on the link. Hmm. I believe it is time to leave, our job is done there. they had their chance to get along with each other. so many oars in the water pulling in different directions all at once.
I feel-no proof- like our people are functioning as mercs for the house of saud. that is a bad feeling.
can you imagine the egyptian reaction when the flow of the Blue Nile slows to a trickle and Aswan High dam dries up a bit? I see ethiopia taking it in the shorts unless some thinking people get involved. don't see that happening either. China probably.
That would make China's day, wouldn't it? Disruption that they can finagle into a disaster. And then step in with "help".
ethiopian people have survived tribalism, Italian imperialism, the league of nations inaction, communists, drought, marxists, starvation, armed insurrection, neighbors, religion, probably rock and roll; what's a few chinese rabble rousers going to do to them that they hadn't survived already. but, yeah, china.
Concur. It's time to leave them to their own infernal devices.
Me? I'm waiting for the Haditha damn in Iraq to collapse and it will one day. It was designed by idiots and built by idiots and when it goes it will be a human catastrophe.
Egypt will have no choice but to take out the damn and they will. If the Ethiopians are smart, and they used to be incredibly smart (only uncolonized country in Africa) they will make an agreement on filling the headwaters for the damn and spilling enough to keep Eygpts Aswan damn in good shape. If they get greedy there will be a war. I would not put my money on Egypt winning such a war.
Oops. It's a dam in Sudan not Ethiopia. I just like Ethiopia.
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