Islamism cannot be weakened, while its presumed enemies are so confused and divided

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Jan 6, 2016 at 02:34

The Islamist movement, so-called, is not a mold growing, all by itself, in a petri dish. It is part of the world at large; and as such, will owe its survival or demise not to its own merits or demerits, but to what other actors are doing: actors like the US, Europe, Russia, etc.

In the Middle East today, we have yet another strategic confrontation taking shape: Iran and the Saudis are facing each other off. The Iranians have Iraq and Hizbullah on their side, for sure; and the Saudis can count on Bahrain, Sudan, UAE, Kuwait and Jordan, with moral support from Egypt and others. Absent from the front lines are two other "face-off" countries, Russia and Turkey; who are advising the Saudis and Iranians to cool it so they don't make an impossible mess out of an already difficult situation.

There is a great strategic fault line that seems to lie under Europe. Presumably, the major powers in the group, being all NATO countries, are siding with Turkey and Saudi Arabia and (very questionably) with the US. They aren't however. Greece, for example, is against Turkey and working against its ascension to the EU. Germany is stabbing its Central European friends in the back, by pushing for the Nord II pipeline to bail out the Russians. Along similar lines, it has condemened Saudi Arabia for executing a few dozen Shi'ite criminals (after the Iranians have executed some 1000 or so prominent Sunnis, with no notice from the West). The Poles, meanwhile, who just elected a conservative, Christian government, have been attacked viciously by the Western press. Since they oppose and feel threatened by the Russians, I suppose that puts them in the Turkish camp -- and out of the German one.

Of all the serious players in the Middle East, however, the one that continues to baffle me to no end is the country I live in, the US. Some will say that it's because of our naive, ignorant and evil President, Barack Obama. Unfortunately, Obama is only average among Americans in naivetee, ignorance and evil: the half of Americans who voted for him are worse than him in all reapects. Because of this, we stand at least a 50:50 chance of getting a repeat performance after the coming election.

Where does the US stand? Are we with the Iranians, who have been laughing at us and taunting us, brazenly testing new ballistic missiles against the treaty they just signed with us, a treaty of which the ink still isn't dry? Or are we with the Saudis, long-term US allies who support the people in Iraq and Syria that the press tells us we must hate -- namely, the Sunni Arabs? So far, I lean toward our being in the Iranian camp (and hence Russian camp, as well); but I don't think "Mr. America" (BO) has any idea what's even going on in his own head.

Islamism is certainly not going to disappear, while those who supposedly oppose them are obviously so divided.

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