AND THEN ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE

Richard Engle, NBC’s Chief Foreign Correspondent who has covered the Middle East for the past twenty years, has just put out a book titled:

AND THEN ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE,

This is a must read book for anyone wishing to understand the complex issues of the Muslim world that seriously affect the rest of the global community. 

Engle begins with a history of the Middle East and the factors that have led to the religious fanaticism that has co-opted the Muslim faith.  

He accounts a fascinating story of his own immersion into the Arab culture; and reveals his understanding of the political, social and religious beliefs driving the violence of today’s complex and diverse Middle Eastern Muslim societies.

Usually when I am reading at night my mind will start to blank out and I know it is bed time.  I started Engle’s book and had to force myself to lay it down and go to bed at midnight.  

Again; a must read to be intelligently informed on a part of the world that is holding hostage, with a threat of violence, all free thinking people. 

the Ol’Buzzard 

SUNNI vs SHIITES

Shiites and Sunni have been at war for the past fourteen hundred years, but for the last fifteen years the United States (motivated by oil interest) has inserted itself into the fray; and in the process destabilized the entire Middle East. 

CBS Sunday Morning gave a quick overview of the religious/ geopolitical factions involved and the crazy alliances the US has committed itself. 

  

This is a Religious Civil War that needs to happen; but we cannot extract ourselves, because our commitment is not to one side or the other - but to oil.

It doesn't have to make sense: it is Religion. '
the Ol'Buzzard

THE UNREPORTED WAR

America is focused on war in the Middle East; we are obsessed with Isis, mainly because of their media exploitation of the beheading of  Westerners. - and our government's obsession with oil.   

However, all this time there has been a European leaning country under attack by Russia - a country truly fighting to keep its independents; and we in America are ignoring their struggle.  

You will not find reporting of the Ukrainian struggle on the news; but you can get a firsthand view, and understanding of the root of the conflict by accessing the Blog Fodder blog posted by a Canadian living in Ukraine

It really is worth following.   

America is involved, and has been for over a decade, in a Middle Eastern religious conflict that has no resolution.   It is quite possible we created the conflict by removing Saddam from Iraq.   Colin Powell warned the Bush administrator that if you break it you own it...   well we have tried to own it every since.    

The bottom line is that we should be supporting the Ukrainian people desperately fighting to keep their independence from Russia and not spending the lives and resources in the Middle Eastern black hole of religious extremism.

the Ol'Buzzard