In other words, there will be no peace. Not for at least another generation or three.
Yeah, oodles of good came out of that one.
You'd be surprised. The Iraq war has had a lot of unintended, possibly good, consequences.
Rummy and the toadies thought that dismantling Iraq in seconds would make the Iranians capitulate and put the fear of god in the rest of the ME too. Their planning failures made sure that didn't happen.
However, Iran's ascendence and its ability to wield power over its neighbors has the rest of the ME running scared. I wouldn't be surprised if the ME ends up in a new Shi'ite/Sunni cold war.
All in all it's a positive development for Israel because it encourages the Saudis and the Syrians to be more serious about making a deal than they were before.
All in all it's a positive development for Israel because it encourages the Saudis and the Syrians to be more serious about making a deal than they were before.I wish that were true, but isn't Syria still (as Mark Steyn famously put it) Iran's first Sunni Arab prison bitch? Or has that changed?
Arab culture is one that admires brute force and power, and if they think Iran is stronger in the region than we are, that's where they'll go. They'll happy put aside the Sunni-Shia spats to attack infidels, especially if they believe that we're weak.