What is happening in the Middle East is a large scale regional civil war, maybe comparable to the European World Wars in due course. Sunni versus Shia and secular versus Islamist. The problem is that none of them, not Sunnis, not Shias, not Secularists, not Islamists, not Al Qaeda not any of them, have a viable way to run a modern economy and they all have rising populations, with no jobs, and food prices are rising world wide.
Without oil the economic system of the Middle East, outside Turkey, simply does not work. Pakistan, Egypt, Syria are basket cases funded by outside aid. And this in a world where, while Europe and the US have been developed for a long time, and you can complain about imperialism, the Middle East doesn’t seem to have noticed the rise of China, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore etc. which did it ‘their way’ ignoring the ludicrous ‘Washington Consensus’ on developing economies, and with limited outside help.
They simply changed their societies dramatically, and in particular redistributed land, broke the traditional elites, and gave women much enhanced rights. Without the latter education is a joke as educated women are essential to development. So without being culturist or racist, the US simply does not have the power, nor does anyone else to stop the civil war, and it is time for the Middle East people themselves to come up with a solution just like South Korea or China did at the end of devastating wars/civil unrest.
Marching in the streets is one thing but as the Occupy movement found, you need solutions, viable, understandable, implementable economic solutions and education is dead center of almost everything along with women’s rights…
Creativeconflictwisdom's Blog 