Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian249x
I am not at all sure that I would trust any Arab nation too much or any nation completely. My experience of Arab nations is that they admire and respect treachery and double dealing. Israel exists because the Arab nations have been unable to mount united action. They can never resist the temptation to backstab each other. They have never trusted us, because they are always looking to beguile and deceive. That does not mean that our government is reliable and trustworthy. The very nature of our political system means that our policy shifts every eight years..
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Sadly that is the perception in the West, the Arab World becomes complicated because of the different sects of Islam, similar to the many wars of the middle ages between Catholic and Protestant, one of the cited causes of the troubles in Northern Ireland.
The largest sect is Sunni, with an estimated 1.39 Billion followers, next is Shi'a with 200 million, the two lesser sects Lbadi and Sufism, are the minor sects with about three million between them, although that is disputed. The complications come in when you have different countries with different controlling sects. This is what is often the root cause of distrust and enmity in The Middle East.
Iran is a Shi'a country, most of the rest are Sunni, many of the regime in Syria are Shi'a, which is why Iran is supporting them. During the first Gulf War, Saudi Arabia went to war in Kuwait's defence, there was no back stabbing there, the six day war, almost spelt the end of Israel, again no back stabbing, but better fighting ability, weapons, leadership and most importantly Israel knew it was a fight to the death, had they lost, they would have ceased to exist. The West would not have allowed Israel to be whipped out either in my opinion. It could have escalated massively.
The perception of the Arab world is sadly a stereo type, no different from the scheming Jew, or the violent Black. The region does have solid grounds for its distrust of the West, The Sykes Picot Plan is a prime example, two aristocratic colonial administrators, who over stepped their brief, and yet the plan was adopted, it destroyed, tribal, religious and even family ties, and created a series of straight lines on a map, which are now the countries of the middle east, imagine if we tried that in Western Europe today, would we have peace any time soon?
The Arab World sees Israel as protected by The US, Trumps decision to move the Embassy a prime example of US disregard for the Arabs, Israeli occupation of Jerusalem is a breach of International Law and the cause of several UN Resolutions (all ignored!).
Trump I am sure ignores his advisors, I know some damn good people in the US Diplomatic Corps, hard working folk, who try very hard to understand the Region, sadly there are too a lot of arseholes, sadly that is not just an American trait, everyone else has them too!