The current crisis in the Middle East has really been a product of the politics of imperialism of which the unraveling political conditions of Iraq represents just one of the many emerging and potential symptoms.
Iraq emerged as part of the territorial allocation (divisions of spoils from war) awarded to Britain, taken from the vanquished Ottoman Empire, via the Sykes-Picot treaty/agreement (a secret agreement of United Kingdom and France with the assent of Russia in defining their sphere of influence), following the close of World War I. This makes Iraq an artificial nation bound by deep ethnic and religious divide. And US government meddling in the region has only opened up old wounds and complicated highly sensitive relationships.
The Middle East geopolitics of "no permanent friends and only permanent interests" as explained historian Eric Margolis.
The late Saddam Hussein was certainly right when he predicted that America’s invasion of Iraq would become “the Mother of All Battles.” Eleven years later, it continues….ISIS is a combination of Sunni jihadist groups fighting the Shia-backed Damascus government of Bashar Assad( a US enemy backed by Shia Iran), and resurgent units of Saddam’s old Ba’athist army, led by Izzat Ibrahin al-Douri, the last surviving member of Saddam’s inner circle, and a handful of al-Qaida in Iraq.They are battling to overthrow the US-installed Shia regime in Baghdad of Nuri al-Maliki, an Iranian ally. There are suspicions ISIS may be secretly financed by Sunni Saudi Arabia, a US ally.Wait a minute. My enemy’s enemy is my friend, as the old Mideast saying goes. The US is trying to overthrow Syria’s secular government to undermine its ally, Iran. The US has been using brutal jihadist groups against the Assad regime in Damascus. But now these jihadists in Syria have mostly fallen under the sway of ISIS – which is chewing up the US-backed regime in Baghdad. Confusing, is it not? My enemy’s enemy has become my friend’s enemy.
The major beneficiary from the Middle East Crisis….
Following the time-tested Roman imperial formula of ‘divide et impera’ (divide and rule), Washington played Iraq’s long downtrodden Shia against its Sunni minority, igniting a wider Sunni-Shia conflict in the Arab world, notably in Syria. In fact, Israel emerged as the sole strategic victor of the Bush/Cheney war against Iraq.That war, so far, has cost the US 4,500 soldiers killed, 35,700 wounded, 45,000 sick and over $1 trillion. Iraq lies in ruins, likely shattered beyond all attempts to put it back together. No senior American or British official has faced trial for this disastrous, trumped-up war.
The blowback on Sykes-Picot
Interestingly, efforts by ISIS to forge an Islamic state in a merged Syria and Iraq is one of the first major challenges to the foul Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 under which the British and French Empires secretly colluded to divide up the moribund Ottoman Empire’s Mideast domains. Today’s artificial Mideast borders were drawn by the Anglo-French imperialists to impose their rule on the region. Iraq and Syria were the most egregious examples.ISIS appears set on erasing the British-French borders and re-creating the unified Ottoman province (Turkish: vilyat) of Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. In the West, the neocon-dominated commentariat calls ISIS terrorists. In the Mideast, many see them as anti-colonial fighters struggling to reunite the Arab world sundered and splintered by the western powers. The western powers are now preparing to strike back.
Read the entire article here
If the conditions in the Middle East spreads and deteriorates, such poses a substantial risk on the stability of the region. Aside from the potential impact on oil prices which will compound on the growing global inflationary pressures, a regional conflict will destabilize global trade and economy (e.g. OFWs)
Don't worry be happy, stocks will rise forever.
