[/caption]There has been a welcome respite from war in the Middle East for quite sometime between Israel and anyone, but lately we have seen the sparks of conflicts flickering, which could start off war in the region.
The reason we care about war between Israel and anyone is the tendency to draw everyone into the conflict - Israel is the only combatant that seems to unite the Arabs, or moreover, Sunnis and Shiite.
A few months ago, we had the situation with the blockade. Incidentally, Israel agreed yesterday for the United Nations to take up the issue – a few days ago, we had skirmishes in Israel with Hamas; and today, Time Magazine is reporting that there was a skirmish between Israel and the Lebanese army on their shared border, that resulted in casualties for both neighboring countries.
This seeming revving up of the players in the region to a war is happening despite the Saudis, the Syrians, and the British pleading with the players to keep their powder dry.
The International Crisis Group, a mediation group of diplomats, is predicting war in the region. The combatants, including Israel, have been restocking their arsenal since the last major war, and the advent of Iran getting the nuclear bomb is one of the major catalysts, which could trigger an all out war between principals, proxies, and surrogates in the region.
Lest we forget that the United States has thousands of troops - though scheduled to leave shortly as outlined by President Obama’s speech yesterday, in neighboring Iraq - we could be dragged into the brewing conflict. This scenario is possible because as of last Sunday, one of our generals said that there is a contingency plan for attacking Iran if it doesn’t adhere to the sanctions brought to bear because of their nuclear aspirations.
If we think that our economy is bad now, God help us if there is war in the Middle East, especially if Iran is involved . We must be mindful that most of the of Western oil imported traverse the Straight of Hormuz, which is controlled by, you guest it, the Iranians.
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