Saturday, September 13, 2014

Bumbling About the Internet

This morning I spent a few minutes looking at how the Arab world looks at ISIS.  After all, it's not likely that the United States will become a caliphate, but many Arabs are already looking at the rule of the Caliphate.  Not surprisingly, there's a good deal of ridicule out there.  One rather amateurish Palestinian production suggests that only Israel will benefit from ISIS.  Another much better piece notes that ISIS won't take over Lebanon, as they need a functioning government to overthrow.

I'm amazed, though, that our pundit class has failed to notice that (a) a lot of people in the Arab world are going to be seriously unwilling to take the hit for us and (b) that in the complicated politics of the Arab world, we're way out of our competence.  ISIS seems to have a lot more competence, having already cut a deal with the moderate Islamists in Syria that the US was planning to fund.  And why would the Saudis, who share much of the ISIS vision, be willing to help defeat ISIS, and help Iran in the bargain?  And Israel is already complaining that the struggle with ISIS will strengthen Iran.

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