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The Middle East Explained - In One Minute
With Islamic extremists raising their ominous-looking flags over Falluja and Ramadi again, it's not looking too good in Iraq (or the rest of the Middle East). Sure, Mark Firoe notes, Iraqi government forces may take back some territory they lost, but it's never a good sign when you have to shell your own country to maintain order. Confused at the proxy-wars, terrorists, statists, and just who the US is friends with? Have no fear, the following brief clip will explain it all...
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ALLAHU AKBAR!
Satoshi is great!
Please martyr yourself.
Virtually or otherwise.
so which al-cia-duh is this? the ones that the U.S. Government is funding to kill civilians in Syria? or the ones we are supposed believe knocked down three sky scrapers with box cutters, including a magical collapse of a building that wasn't even touched?
more likely, these are just people fed up with another U.S. puppet government.
"...it's never a good sign when you have to shell your own country to maintain order."
Tell me about it...a lotta shelling is going to be have to be done here just to get our Constituional rights BACK.
Sounds like a terrorist to me.
Malcontent at the very least.
Here is the true story, from artist Nina Paley:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-evIyrrjTTY
+$1.1 Trillion
Look guys, it's all very simple: there's good jihadis and there's bad jihadis.
For example, Bin Laden was a bad jihadi which is why he was hunted down and killed, except in the 80s when he was fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan when the was a good jihadi, which is why he was given portable Ground-to-Air missiles.
Same thing in Syria where this week jihadists are bad 'cause they're actually fighting against US supported rebel movements, but a couple of months ago they were good because they were fighting against a Syrian government that wouldn't bow down to the interests of that greatest of US allies (and bestest source of skyscraper destroying suicide pilots) - Saudi Arabia.
It really is THAT simple.
+1
"Oh...this is good. You guys always bring me the VERY best violence."
Super animation. I love the cynicism mixed with humour. Thanks for posting it ILLI.
We will win or die trying. What other option is there? Live in chains? I believe some dude said it better than I ever could a few hundred years ago.
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
? Samuel Adams
Keywords: FUCK the following: Obama, Ben, Mr. Yellen, Greenspawn, GS, Blackrock. JPM...damn too many to say fuck off to but you know who you are!
Rooster,
+ forever. No surrender. I for one care nothing for the bleating of venal cowards, nor the ways of foreigners who are entitled to their own place at their own cost. No more war for foreigners.
+ Forever.
Agreed. It's almost game time for the Live Free, Or Die Bowl with the Patriots playing the State.
I'm placing my life, my fortune, my sacred honor on the Patriots. Who's bring the hot-wings and beer? Maybe some Sam Adams...
Of the things you risk, only honor matters. The fortune is just stuff. Your life, you will die eventually no matter what. Your honor is who you are and why you lived.
You can keep the Sam Adams. I really don't like their beer. Gimme a pale ale, an altbeir or an english ale any day.
Give 'em hell. Ranger, lead the way and remember the rules.
Eretz Israel
http://www.ahavat-israel.com/eretz/future
There is one country cloaked like a Romulan Bird of Prey in that disinformational cartoon.
I want my minute back and "News in a nutsack" is worth balls.
the cloaking device must be running low and juice, because its getting pretty obvious who is orchestrating most of the wars.
Yeah, amazing how easy it was to find some guy who sounds like the "Rocky and Bullwinkle" announcer.
Alhamdulillah!
Gold is greater!
Allah's snakbar serves mean pork BBQ ribs
The cook's a Chinaman.
+1 God damn that's funny!
Can I have your bitcoins when you blow yourself up?
Jer 17:9 ¶ The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
This is all you need to know if you want to understand the present world.
@ "who can know it?"
only the head in communion with the heart.
Hemispheres was such a great Rush album.
The Trees
amen, and for all the daily angst here over ruling elite and bankers taking advantage of the rest, ZH should keep Psalm 37 on its header - amazingly applicable to today - addressing fretting over the wicked succeeding -
He will be a wild donkey of a man, his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.
From God's Word the Bible
Jer 17:9 ¶ The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
This is all you need to know if you want to understand women.
There fixed it for ya.
1st John 5:19 "We know we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the [power of the] wicked one (Satan)."
This is all you need to know if you want to understand the present world
There's a minute and a half wasted that I'll never get back.
Wait for the prequel.
I knew I should have closed the tab as soon as I heard his voice.
Different century, different weapons, same shit.
The Habib Hatfields versus the Mohammed McCoys.
When my buddy came back from a 13 month tour in Iraq 3 years ago, he told me as soon as we leave, the civil war will start, Sunni vs. Shia (Iran), and that they would continue their 1,000 year war of vendetta. He was right. Thousands of our troops sacrificed for nothing, trillions of dollars also. So I say, may George Bush and Barry Bathouse rot in Hell for eternity, pieces of shit cocksucking motherfuckers, and all those that enabled the war in Congress and at the top levels of the military. Fuck you all.
Don't forget Cheney and those $1,000 Halliburton macaroni and hot-dog(!) trays.
Aw c'mon - they were milled from solid mil-grade titanium. Guaranteed Camel Spider proof... well, Camel Spider resistant, at any rate.
Well worth $1000 to know our boys eat hotdogs from the world's finest platters.
I was referring to the hot-dogs(!) and macaroni proper.
The trays were made in China as were the macaroni and "hot-dogs" (!)
Halliburton (via Dick) just happened to win the no-bid.
No brainer.
Cheney has a mechanical heart that runs on diesel, how else can this evil asshole cocksucker greedy bastard keep on living? The man would stomp on newborns to grab dollar bills off floors.
That describes just about every member of the Satanic Tribe I've ever met, too! Only they's call you an anti-Semite if you were in their way!
Cheney's not Jewish is he?
What, he hasn't done enough to piss you off already?
Not sure about the rest of him, but his heart and the jackboots surely are.
It's a real heart. The orphan that was ahead of him in the transplant line died in a tragic car crash.
....and to think how many millions of people called it exactly as you stated the day this pile of shiite came to fruition........and how many more were completely suckered that same day
The fact that given a chance Sunni and Shia would fight was common knowledge before the war. As a side note, the cartoon got almost everything wrong. I wonder why…
It's amazing how the US, with their big stick, starts smacking hornet's nests all over the middle east and are surprised that the hornets are pissed. The US is the impetus for the turmoil, mayhem and suffering, not only to the poor brown people of the middle east, but to American and other allied countries mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters of ignorant young and poor mercenaries that somehow believed the narrative that they were defending freedom.
Howard Zinn?!
The Sunni Shia nonsense, and tribal fighting, kinda predates the pilgrims, and the magna carta, nevermind the constitution, so...FAIL
Easy on GW Bush noiw, You cant fault a man for being born stupid. Remember the TV video clip where when they were discussing how to help Israel by invading Iraq -- Bush was sent outside of the room to play with his fucking dog.
Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, Powell..these war criminals were as much to blame as Bush and more so than Obummer. At least he voted against the war. Give him credit for that.
I apologize. I supported the invasion on the following logic: We were already there. We were already shooting back and forth with them via enforcement of the no fly zones and punitive raids. A whole lot of people had died when we didn't finish Saddam off in the 1st war. In my mind a war is not over until one side is utterly vanquished. Saddam had not been vanquished. The second war was billed as getting Saddam and his thugs and destroying the WMD. I have no idea what happened to the WMD but find it curious that Syria was so willing to destroy its stockpiles so quickly. Maybe they have the Iraq stash. Regardless, it should have been a smash and grab job and then get the heck outta there (the region). As long as we had to enforce those no flys there was no way to get out of the region.
The road to hell is laid with the best of intentions. It sucks to learn that the hard way.
Anyone see this video of Al Qaeda mercs with retired General Vallely in Syria?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrbWbZ43m20
so we send troops to leave blood in the sand and are supposed to believe the sunni shite conflict wont come home to roost... again... so we are on both sides at once....brilliant... how much is this costing us?? and what is wrong with bombing fallujah? we should have taken it off the map, along with ramadi and the other insurgent enclaves.. brennan is the cocksucker who engineered this fiasco... between brennan, clapper, hagel, kerry and obumbler you cant find any testicles or brains.. we are adrift in a dangerous world wit no leadership or real allies... meantimne russia and china smelling fear and weaknessre on the move.. oh nothing to worry about, our economy and jobs are booming we can fund foreign adventures forever... right... and obumblercare will certainly help too.
"we should have taken it off the map, along with ramadi and the other insurgent enclaves"..
Yeah that would sure fix it. Just like everything else we did in that Country and failed and continue to fail.
Spoken like a frustrated loser of a Veteran of those wars on meds. Do the American taxpayer a favor esum...
Go take your pill, put a gun in your mouth and pull the trigger!
esum your asumtion that we had to retaliate(if i read correct), should mean bombing dc to rid out the real enemy...
Just like everything else we did in that Country and failed and continue to fail.
(Correction)
As if we had a legitimate reason to invade and occupy a sovereign Nation (again) who's only crime was that it had an enormous amounts of oil that it no longer wanted to sell in USD and in return for both we brutally raped, murdered and tortured over a million people (probably many more) because we once again didn't get our way.
The irony that one of the most evangelical countries in the world, a country who has one of the highest percentage of citizens who claim to be christians but who simultaneously is the most aggressive and imperialist country on the face of the earth . . . . . . . . what the fuck. Does anything in this world make sense anymore. Christianity obviously doesn't work. This love thy enemy, pacificist, turn the other cheek mentality sure has played right into the hands of the ruling elite - keeping in mind that real enemy is not the terrorists but the members of the ruling parties and shadowy oligarchs.
It is disturbing, even to me, that violence seems to be THE only way to resolve these issues. How long before bullets start flying. How long before bankers are picked off one by one. How long before members of congress are in the crosshairs of a seriously pissed Joe Public. What other avenues are left when you are dealing with sociopaths. One thing is for certain, christianity has provided the perfect backdrop for the ruling elite to take control over the pacifist masses - was this the intention or religion from the outset?
All my criticisms of theists aside this is a deadly serious point. Sociopaths are evil mother fuckers. The majority of people are of course not sociopaths but conversely easily lead so go along, without question, the dictates of their parents religion. If the said religion calls for pacifism, turning cheeks, loving enemies then by definition eventually the society will be fucked over by the sociopaths. Hell of a conundrum.
+ 10
If you were honest, you would admit that they were not innocent bystanders in all of that and the situation was not unique except that we (as a nation) did not keep the captured land (perhaps if we had behaved as conquerors the problem would have been solved). Saddam played the game. He lost. That has been happening for thousands of years.
Regardless, you encourage an apparently brave man who was willing to serve to kill himself. How enlightened of you. Educating him would be a terrible thing and a waste of your time. Yet, you took the time to insult him. Very curious.
new game seems to get it, even if sarcastically.
and what is wrong with bombing fallujah? we should have taken it off the map, along with ramadi and the other insurgent enclaves..
That's damn right! Anyone who resists invasion should be wiped off the map... along with their children, pets, and architecture.
Worked well in Viet Nam! Boy, did we show those suckas!
Sorry BigJim I left you out...
Forget to tell you and esum to load your revolver with hollow points before you squeeze the trigger.
If you are not with firearms (which I doubt) I'll be delighted to provide you with a couple shot guns with some Flite-Control Wad buckshot to assist you both in reaching the "other side".
Just let me know how I can help!
The irony-blanking field is strong with this one.
He's just being a douche.
Man... that went right over your head, didn't it?
O ==--- <--- Joke
O
/|\ <--- Son of Captain Nemo
/ \
Apologies BigJim.
But you don't know the /sarc from the "non". Even on this site.
Well, we did rapidly win the Vietnam war once we started bombing th fuck out of north Vietnam. Then a democrat congress prevented us meeting treaty obligations with south Vietnam, which brought about the helicopters off the embassy roof imagery a few YEARS later, when we no longer had a military presence there. Like in Iraq today.
For those who read french here is a recap from Le Monde which is in line with what ZH has presented us over the past year; aka Bandar games and US turnaround on Syria and Iran. What is new is that it englobes in this overview the situation in MENA very well.
http://www.lemonde.fr/libye/article/2014/01/13/le-grand-jeu-de-riyad-pou...
This doesn't just go back decades, or even centuries, it goes back millenia. Several thousand years of my god is bigger than your god.
Bullshit. Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together in peace for centuries in the middle east. Then, Rothschild showed up.
You know this video is bullshit when it's trying to imply that "the Saudis are behind stuff." What a crock. The only thing the Saudis are behind is a bottle of scotch and a pocket of khat. The video said nothing about Israel, Rothschilds, oil / the petrodollar and Standard Oil.
I'm no historian but I have had the impression that endless peace has a life span of about fifty years, tops. Like forever.
Peace in our time runs even shorter than that, on average.
if ya boil all the bullshit and truth from this thread, i think you will agree that this is survival from the agresors perspective no matter what the fuck they believe. survival is at the heart of all(normal)aggression.
ah wtf is normal? simple-from the perspective of the agresor...
Since when have Jews ever lived in peace with anyone?!? Having enemies and being paranoid is part of their religion. They always try to destroy the societies they infest!
So is the really shitty part the never ending war, or what spoils that go to the victor?
Gentlemen,
Please do not offer your sons up for these .gov SOB's any longer. They use our finest citizens and our own money against our sacred Constitution and against us.
It's an all-voluteer army, don't you know. Unfortunately, they'll stop-loss your ass from getting out until you're old and gray. Happened to a close family memeber of mine FOUR times, and his situation is not unique by any stretch. He's got exercised-induced asthma now (which he swears is from some of the crap he's been exposed to over the last 22 years, but can obviously never prove it) which has caused him to fail the run in his fitness tests for several years now. AND HE'S STILL IN.
The good news is his pension was cut last week. By the time he's old enough to collect he expects it to buy maybe a happy meal once a month, if that.
Don't sign up. It's a sucker's game.
I find it hard to feel much sympathy for our legionaries. Even a cursory glance at history should reveal they won't be fighting for their 'country'.
You really shouldn't blame the victims, BigJim. Even if they were dumbasses. Maybe you were educated in private schools, I dunno. Even if you were, you were still indoctrinated- just a different flavor from the public schools.
It's a rare bird that can smell bullshit no matter the source. You ain't a rare bird, unfortunately.
When you're surrounded by bullshit, it is indeed hard to work out - from smell alone - what is bullshit and what isn't.
But you have to try. If there's one lesson in life, it's that you are ultimately responsible for what you do. If you've changed, you may no longer be responsible for what you've done, of course, which is the whole message of the repentance thing. But even the transformed repenter will try to make amends. That's hard to do if the people you've wronged are dead... by your hand.
As for our legionaries being 'the victims', reviewing who is invading whom tells a different story... as do the kill ratios.
BJ, TPTB have been able to create a situation where, for a certain segment of society, the military is a viable option. Yes, it has come down to limiting prospects for a large group of individuals (obviously not your best and brightest). It's either McD's and Walmart vs the military. And when you can wrap it up in the flag, and make promises that will never be kept is it any wonder that a "voluntary" military exists? The best we can hope is that the modern soldier manages to grow up and learn something while serving, so that they don't return home lobotomized atomatons skilled in death and taking orders.
My hope is that all those angry and abused vets will lead the serfs' march on our leaders' fortified mansions.
The best deterrent one can offer to a young person thinking about "signing up," is to have them visit a vet hospital.
That usually does the trick.
"Guillotines 'R Us"
Or a private screening of "Full Metal Jacket."
After seeing what happened in vietnam, I told my oldest son. You do not have my blessing to join the military. I would never support any of these so called wars we see now days.
Stupidest thought that I may have ever had: "Vietnam, they'll never do that again."
"With some modifications, a guillotine can cut firewood and support itself until such time that the 'trash' needs taken out."
Bitcoin akbar!
it is about adherence to a global banking system,
not about sects of religion. about destructive technology
and proficiency in the debt to participate in mass
murder and such, calling it the will of god.
aka stupidity or "culture".
A pic of a whole bunch of cow shit in a pasture would sum it up nicely I think.
http://vegasxau.blogspot.com
They can have Falluja and Ramadi just stay away from OUR OIL.
Bring back Saddam.
Oh wait...
He was a sonovabitch, but no longer OUR sonovabitch. He had a fairly sonovabitchy relationship with the fascist regime in France, but that didn't quite save him.
"The civil war sparked by the US occupation"
Sorry, stopped listening right there. Don't know what other gibberish they were going to spout and don't care.
The Middle East's main problem is they have no idea of what the good life is. Look at all the sand they have.
In America, you would be sitting in a lawn chair, eating Southern BBQ, drinking a beer, and watching your girl play beach volleyball in her bikini.
In the Middle East, they just want to....... Hell if I know.
The Middle East was lost 1400 years ago.
Any 'gains' made in the last decade were all forfeit in 2008 with election of Barack Hussein Obama. He made it clear before the election for those who had ears to hear. All the radicals had to do was hang on until BHO found a way to walk away.
But now, who'd a thunk Obama would go the extra mile and be caught dead to rights spooning with the Muslim Brotherhood, Taliban, and arm Al-Qaeda?
Saudi (SA) Arabia v. Iran <BAM> ?!?
FWIW Dept: Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Muslim and al-Maliki a Shia`Iraqi, both hated al Qaeda, as do all the Kurdish tribes, from Istanbul too Kabul, period! Riyadh loves them, and supports them along with every non-sanctioned terrorist group the UN Nat'l Security Council is afraid to acknowledge for fear of USSA retribution...along with Tel Aviv seconding their motion of approval! Hezbollah, Muslim (MB) Brotherhood, and Hamas are the bogeyman of the ME? Forget the PLO?!?, or the Afghan Taliban (Pashtuns?)!!!
It's all about Pakistan and the ISI's love affair with Pak's`Taliban, and the Arab training camps. Riyadh (SA) controls all terrorist extremist in the ME. Pakistani Sunni extremists who are holistically, spiritually, and blessed by Allah-- are soul brothers to the Taliban... and enjoy sending child suicide bombers into Afghanistan's Shiite mosques during friday afternoon prayer services to get maximum kill ratios , ie death counts! Note: 1997 Iran was about to start a war with Afghanistan but backed out, after amassing 200k troops on shared 800 mile border? Since 1859 Iran has never contemplated war with any of its ME neighbor. None!
There are ~ 3 million Afghan refugees living in Iran as of 2009-12-- and ironically Iran has one of the world's most addicted populations. How's that poppy/opium crop gowing in Kandahar and Helmand where the Taliban's presence is least and the heroin processing non-stop 24/7/365 to feed Uncle Sam's MIC's ???
The Iranian's are great friends with Kabul and Karzai but fear the USSA as permanent occupiers past 2014. Should the USSA get bogged down in Afghanistan as we did in Vietnam through terrible 19th/ mid20th century West Point strategy (not having the slightest ideal how to fight guerrilla warfare-- were fucked!) in a post Cold-War mindset, that's still in 60's groupthink mode-- look for Iran to cuddle the Talban as a buffer'd endzone ally as does the Pakistan's (reasons being India and Russia/Iran?) than a foe!
Obama kowns all this from his early dealings with the MIC general genius's that like big expensive stuff to fill their traitorist war-for-profit pockets, without never stepping outside Langley, Va.!?!
Finally. It is really a pathetic mess, when a presidential administration will sacrifice the lives of young men and woman for political points!!!
BTW: Was Richard Holbrooke murdered??? Right here in the 'Good-ole-USSA' for being to successful, having America's best interest to close to his "HEART" !?!
Fuck Saudi Arabia and good for you Iran!
jmo
thankyou Tyler
Was Richard Holbrooke murdered.
I always thought so.
Islam: Party Like It's 1299!!!!!!!
Did Islam exist in 1299? I don't think it did, but pardon me if I'm wrong.
Wikipredia probably has the dates right. 21st century minus 7th century gives something north of a millennium, in any case.
If memory serves me it was officially 622 AD and just 110 years later, the MUslims were stopped at Tours, France by Charles Martel or we wold all face to Mecca 5 times a day. Milestones
Than again in 1683 they were stopped at Vienna by Jan III Sobieski's relief forces that attacked Ottomans laying siege to the city.
But instead of the so called rag heads, you bow to the tribe that run the banks
//But instead of the so called rag heads, you bow to the tribe that run the banks
//Oh, OK. Maybe I was confused by the Mormons. Any of y'all care to school me on when the Prophet Abraham spoke to Mohammed? I don't wanna know what you believe, I wanna know what you can prove.
Likewise, Moses went up on a mountain while in possesion of two stone tablets, a hammer, and a chisel. Just so happens, God came along and "gave" him the ten commandments. When do you reckon that happened?
WTF is wrong with you people?
God don't care what either of us thinks.
Strange how the EU are reluctant to resettle those 2 million Syrian refugees somewhere's...
The UK is fed up with Islamic refugees they already have (Pakis),and because of the domestic bombings,they are rightly concerned about a voter backlash (UKIP).
Australia as well used to brag about multiculturalism,but the Greek/Macedonian issue,the Greek/Turkish issue,The Serb/Croat/Bosnian/Albanian,etc. It is a simmering powderkeg and one only has to go to a very heavily policed soccer game to sense how far the rope has been stretched.This is after the expenditure of billions for the multicultural industry.
Sociology should join Economics as another false,inexact field of study.To call it a science gives it way to much credibility.
I couldn't give less of a shit what happens on the other side of the planet. Get the fuck out of Sandland and let them kill each other all they want. Let me know when the raghead amphibious vehicles hit Myrtle beach or the Left coast.
Has Netanyahu given Obama his orders on what to do about Iraq yet?
Methinks yer fulla shit if you believe Israel controls world affairs. It's the city, you fuckwits, that regulates money. It's the vatican that shapes public opinion, and it's the US that polices it all. Do you not watch TV?
I think a lot of readers would require the /sarc tag.
Rafferty, thanks for tryin' to cover my backside. I ain't kidding much, though. It makes perfect sense though, that the City Of London administers the Central Banks of the Western world. And they're doing a pitiful job of it. Likewise, the Vatican is failing in its duty of shaping public opinion, what with the sex scandals and bankruptcies... I can't even wrap my head around how a diocese attached at the hip to bankster's banksters can file bankruptcy. Then again, I can. You see, they can fuck up as much as they want, but can't actually be held accountable, per canon, or code, or admiralty, or whatever you wish to call it.
DC, or the US, if you prefer to think of it that way, has been the keeper of this order since WWII. It will not always be this way.
I hope you infer from my comment that The City, via the Vatican and DC claims ownership of everything and everyone in its purvey, and is merely seeking to build upon this.
No sarc required.
Ten years ago, if anyone said we would elect a president whose middle name is "Hussein" they'd be called a five-alarm tinfoil certified conspiracy whack job.
Oops-a-daisy.
Bullshit, isn't it. His ancestors by his name were slave traders, yet he pretends to relate to African Americans. Michelle and her family have been well and truly fucked over. Indigenous tribes of Arabs and Africans were the biggest slave traders, selling their own people, and whitey of a certain banking sort exploited that ancient way, and still do today. See the ME for our update on their medieval madness.
Well, it would be simpler if we could get, straight from the horse's mouth, who are the good al Queda and the bad al Queda.
Al-CIAda, and their Nazi friends, old and new including the Trilateral Commission, are screwing everyone, for the profit of their few. War is a racket.
i think the bit with big o and khomeini holding hands is wrong and misleading. read the redirection. it will probably take more than two minutes but it is not bs
The middle East in three words
Mohammed killing Mohammed.
Is there a problem in the world that's not blamed on Jews? Not according to some of the Jew obsessed types commenting here.
Who cares if violent jihad on infidels pre-dates Rothschilds - everything is explained, in advance if needed, by conspiracy.
Instead of watching the crock pot of these videos one is better off watching what many Muslims are watching. http://www.memri.org. = no opinions, just direct subtitle translations.
"Critics charge that it aims to portray the Arab and Muslim world in a negative light, through the production and dissemination of inaccurate translations and by selectively translating views of extremists while deemphasizing or ignoring mainstream opinions"
It's nice to hear what we want to hear.
That video could have been 30 seconds shorter. Just show an illustration of a CIA goon taking a gigantic shit all over the Middle East, followed by MNC goons pillaging their profits, and VOILA! You have the most accurate description of Middle East problems. The Sheik, Assad and Al Khomeni are all just extras on a stage completely controlled by international greed.