Arab leaders all have two faces.

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Dec 30, 2014 at 14:25

Thanks, Mohammed Waza.

BTW, about your name -- Is it a real name? It makes me think of the folk song, "Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey. A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you? ". You're a subtle fellow, it seems, so maybe you have a comical message here.

I loved the pics of Sydney, and your information that things haven't changed there all that much. That certainly hasn't been the case in American cities I've lived in. I imagine the staffing at Sydney Hospital has changed. When I was there, I was in a 24-bed ward with a bevy of super-cute young nurses going about their chores. I was in a surgical ward, so we were generally healthy and enzymatically functioning despite stitches and such; so the young men would help the young angels make the beds and serve tea. In those days, nurses had to be female and single; so they got the sack when they married.

That lane along the station -- it was all of 5 feet wide, and along a wooden fence along the south side of the station, as I recall. That was over 40 years ago; things change. I've often dreamed of living in Sydney again; but those things HAVE changed, to be sure. Back in the '60s, they used to pay Americans to emigrate to there; now that I'M in my '60s, they don't seem to old farts of any nationality to come. Still, it might happen some day. My son-in-law is a NZ citizen.

I agree with you completely, in your assessment of those "sleeper" Jihadis and their ilk around the world. Yes, those are ideologically/ religiously motivated people. It will be sad news to them, when they get on the Other Side and realize they've all been duped.

I've been trying to sort out the politics in the Middle East; and one thing I'm certain about: NONE of the politics there has anything whatever to do with religion. There are four major players in the area: Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel; and there are two main outside actors: the US, Russia and China. Every state actor, moreover, has two faces: (1) a diplomatic face, including official pronouncements, UN/ AL/ AU votes, economic and political alliances, etc.; and (2) an operational face, including combat and logistical roles. Each of those faces can be associated with one of the major players. Ideology and religion have ZIPPO to do with any of this, though the press usually plays up this false angle and Westerners tend to swallow it.

Here are some examples:

1. Qatar. Diplomatically, it used to be aligned with Turkey; but it has switched to Saudi Arabia. Operationally, there has been no net change: Turkey and Qatar used to play along with the Americans (as did the Saudis); and now the US is fighting side-by-side with the Iranians. The Saudis and Iranians still hate each other; but Amerobama is forcing them to "cooperate" against ISIL The line separating the two lobes of this cooperation is the now-largely-invisible Iraq-Syria border: US and Iranian-allied forces fight together on the Iraqi side of the line; and the US and Saudi-allied forces fight together on the Syrian side of the line. Western laymen aren't used to this brazen duplicity; but it's taught in the mother's milk in the ME.

2. Sudan. Diplomatically, they would like to cozy up to the Saudis; because the Sudanese are broke, and desparately in need of Saudi cash. They still consider the Iranians as, in their own words, "strategic partners"; and they still covertly ship arms to and fro for them. They reflexively deny this, but the Saudis see right through them. The latter are practical, nevertheless; and it suffices them that the Sudanese publicly disassociate themselves from the Muslim Brothehood -- a real trick, seeing that the rulers of Sudan are themselves MB.

3. The Darfur rebels. They are not state actors, so they needn't put on a diplomatic facade. While they have had a ficticious "truce" going with the Sudanese government, their unemployed fighters have found work supporting the Saudi-backed Tobruk government in Libya. On an operational level, then, these rebels are actually allied with the Saudis -- who, in turn, are diplomatically acknowledging their enemies.

4. The Libyan Dawn de facto government in Tripoli and western Libya: They are diplomatically connected with the Turks and, until, recently, with the Qataris as well. The Sudanese consider the Turks and Qataris as allies in this matter, and support Libyan Dawn -- while all the while denying this to the Saudis and Egyptians. That support of the Tripoli Libyans, meanwhile, is part of the Iranian-orchestrated conduit connecting Libya-Tripoli, Sudan, Eritrea, Sinai, Gaza and Yemen-Houti. Operationally, therefore, Libyan Dawn is Iranian, while diplomatically it is Turkish.

I'm sorry if this all sounds complicated; but it has the beauty of not being self-contradictory.

Shalom shalom :-)

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