IN THE MENA FROM NPR

 I once semi-attended the Middle East North Africa Conference when it was held in Doha, Qatar. Back then Qatar was a typical emirate and had three hotels of any note and it was impossible to house 5000 diplomats and their spear carriers for the event so they hired several nice cruise ships to dock pier side in the port. I was along to provide waterside security for the cruise ships and met some fascinating people. 

That said, I am driving back from the University today and hear NPR dribble out a story about how Jordan is bringing back conscription and NPR being the tools they are immediately chased the Israeli rabbit down the wrong hole and blamed escalating tensions with the war mongering Israelis. It was something Netanyahu said about Greater Israel and all of NPR's little alarm bells sprang into frantic jiggle mode.

 

The Land That Never F$cking Forgets

Those who actually follow events around the world and particularly in the Middle East have noticed a couple of things the jigglers at NPR totally failed to notice. 

The entire country of Syria collapsed almost overnight a couple of months back and is rapidly returning to the Hellish State of misery Arabs and Druze seem to enjoy best. The whole country is now presided over by a President (not yet for Life, but soon) who was ISIS. Jordan's northern frontier is now bordering Hell and you better believe refugees are pouring out of Syria every single day and going to the only place that will take them.

ISIS is still unbelievably active in the east and much of Iraq so the Jordanian frontier with Iraq is not all that rosy looking either and perhaps the more observant have noticed that President Trump has a Minister of War who simply will not be blown off by contemptuous rebellious generals who fail to hear when the President says, "get the troops out of the middle east." I think we have probably evacuated the last troops from the Jordanian Border with Syria but I could be wrong and they might still be in the process of packing up and going.

Egypt and Israel got some serious written guarantees for accepting peace at Camp David but Jordan got nothing at all. There is nobody looking out for Jordan's interests other than the King. Jordan is surrounded by iffy states stuffed to bursting with the worst terrorists and vicious amoral killers outside of Africa and if they have decided to rebuild their Army it is passed time. Almost 70% of Jordan is now of Palestinian origins with 2 million of them listed as refugees and over half a million of those living in 10 refugee camps. Nobody and I mean nobody there has forgotten the events of Black September.

I wonder who the Jordanian army is drafting and if it is just the Jordanians or if it includes the refugees and assimilated Palestinians. I don't think there are many muslims left who think it is a really good idea to arm and train slaves and rebellious elements of the population in the arts of war. Most of them have at least heard about the Janissary's Auspicious Incident and of course, the Mamelukes in Egypt. Everyone knows what happened to Rome when it simply turned all the important military functions involved in maintaining an empire over to foreigners. It never ends well.

I think the King has considered the situation as it really is and it has dawned on him that the United States will never respond to a call for aid to assist in suppressing rebellious palestinians in Jordan. On the gripping hand, I think we're probably seeing the last days of the Hashemite Kingdom because the internal pressures alone are overwhelming and adding the frenzy in Syria, ISIS and the ongoing disaster in Gaza is not helping.