Give me insider insight into the predominate attitude in the middle east towards the brutal execution of the pilot from Jordan by ISIS.
Because I think this is a turning point in the situation of the area, and it is looking increasingly less likely that all out war with ISIS will be avoided
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how is there no churchill shoutout in this post tho
It is now. It wasn't a decade ago under Charles Taylor.
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Liberia is actually pretty civilized tbqh. Ellen Sirleaf is a great president.
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When you have to use Sub-Saharan African countries as examples, you might as well not bother. I was talking non-third world crackpot dictatorships.
It'd be like the Afrikaans regaining control of South Africa, or the Russians in the Baltic Countries (not via invasion), or the Swedes in Finland.
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Liberia was under the control of like 3 separate factions during the course of its civil war before Ellen Johnson Sirleaf took office
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Correct, but Persia, and the Persians, is not a word that the Ayatollah's will ever use because of its association with the Shahdom and because of "Land of the Persians" is just not something they model themselves on.
As for Iraq - it's had its change in leadership. Once a majority takes power its very very difficult for a minority to ever get control back again. I am trying to think of a country where this has happened, and I am struggling to come up with an example at all.
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In 1935 Reza Shah Pahlavi asked the international community to call the country Iran - a name that the people of Persia, themselves, used to refer to their country since the Sassanian period. "Iran" (pronounced Eee-Run) means "Land of Aryans". The word "Persia" comes from the word "Fars" which refers to the geographic area in the southern 1/3rd of the country. M
From Wikipedia but you get the point, I don't mind using them interchangeably
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Lashka3m 40s The Shia's are the majority, and with most of the Sunni areas under IS control? I can't see how the Sunni's would get control of Baghdad back any time soon at all.
Things are going so smoothly in Iraq, I'm sure it won't be susceptible to swift and unpredictable changes in leadership. War torn countries never are.
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Disagreed entirely. The only reason it even has a different name (Land of the Aryans) is because some king wanted to please the Third Reich (Can't use the real name). Iran is just Persia except Islamic.
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Persia doesn't exist. Iran under the Ayatollah's is barely even comparable to Persia under the Shah's.
is this a topic about anime??? seems like an anime topicc
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Persia might be willing to forgo the fertile crescent in order to expedite short-term goals, but I think it's wrong to say that Iraq is buddy buddy with Persia when Persia dislikes the existence of Iraq and will stab them in the back the second they don't need them
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The Shia's are the majority, and with most of the Sunni areas under IS control? I can't see how the Sunni's would get control of Baghdad back any time soon at all.
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Four more years? Maybe five?
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How long do you honestly think that Iraq is going to stay Shiite controlled? Just realistically, I mean
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The Fertile Crescent is not a current priority at all. Of course, in future, if relations with the Iraqi government deteriorate or the Sunni's regain control that can change. For 20 years Russia had zero interest at all in regaining Crimea - it wasn't until the Pro-Russian Yanukovych fell that Russia decided to annex it. Things can change quickly, so I'm not going to say "at any point".
Right now, the long-term Iranian aim is securing access to the Mediterranean, via a band of Shia controlled nations. This has been a clear policy for a number of years now regarding their support for Hezbollah & al-Assad and investments in the survival of both al-Assad and al-Abadi.
I'm going to pretend I'm well informed on Middle East history and relations to fit in
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So it is your opinion that the Iranians do not intend to reclaim the Fertile Crescent at any point? I don't agree with that. I think if the Fertile Crescent mattered so little to them that they'd forgo it completely for a Shiite controlled Iraqi government then they probably would not have made such a big deal out of it in the first place.
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The Iraqi Sunnis do indeed get on terribly with the Iranians.
However, since the fall of Saddam, the Iraqi Sunnis have been very much marginalized, and the Shias who were suppressed under the Ba'athists are now in power. They get on fine with the Iranians. The Sunnis are mostly in the northern and western parts of Iraq, which, coincidentally, are the areas now mostly controlled by IS.
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I'm not talking about their capacity for trade though (Although I'll admit that I'm surprised to hear that)
It is my understanding (being as it is what I was taught at a university) that the people within these countries, the regular citizens, vehemently dislike each other to this day.
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Wow check out these blogs
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Historically, they have. Iraq was created by the British and French after World War One, when carving up the Ottoman Empire, and the Persians did indeed want that part of Iraq back under their own control. The way the British and French divided the Middle East up is still causing a lot of problems today.
When the Shah was overthrown the Iranian revolution, Saddam Hussein and the Ba'athists invaded Iran because of these border disputes and because he wanted Iraq to become the major Gulf state. Iran, despite the chaos after the revolution, quickly recovered its lost territory and went on the offensive for the another 5-6 years before the end of that war in a ceasefire.
One thing you should note is that, in common with the general good treatment of the Iranian minorities by the Iranian government, the Iraqi Kurds actually sided with Iran in the Iran-Iraq war, and many of the chemical attacks committed by Saddam Hussein were directed against those Kurds.
After the fall of Saddam, and the rise to power of the previously suppressed Shia majority in Iraq, relations were normalised. Ahmadinejad visited Baghdad in 2006, Shias from Iran are allowed to make pilgramages to Shia holy sites in Iraq, and Iran is the single largest trading partner of Iraq these days.
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Anyway Riotkiller, I have had two separate professors with doctorates in history tell me that Iran and Iraq have some of the poorest relations with each other in the middle east, both of whom have depicted Iran as being desperate to reclaim the Fertile Crescent. Either you are wrong about this or I am wasting a ton of money on my university education.
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Alright, well irrendentism is the word I'm looking for then
