Iran

                The Persian Empire ruled and it dominated for a long time. It has probably been one of the most stable regions in the Middle East. When Muslim reform took over, diplomatic issues arouse, specifically conflict between the United States, Israel, and Iran. If you’ve seen Argo, which I would highly recommend as it is one of my favorite movies, you would know about the American hostages jailed in Iran. These, along with other incidents, have led to the United States and Iran to not really like each other that much.

                This week, the Obama administration has made deals with Iran to become better friends and prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. This is a tricky situation to me like everything else going on in the Middle East. Iran is a loose cannon, they have leaders that could very much be going against everyone. Trying to make friends with them could lead to some serious problems. I feel like Obama kind of just settled with the deal made (more here http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/03/politics/white-house-congress-iran-nuclear-deal/). This is a very sticky situation and settling is a bad idea.  Nuclear weapons in unstable countries like Iran are not good. Look at Israel who is being extremely war-mongering because they have nuclear weapons and aren’t afraid to use them.  Countries like this shouldn’t have a nuclear arsenal and we should do everything in our power to not let that happen. We can’t settle. 

Israel

                Israel is the hot spot of all the fighting in the Middle East. It’s the source of religious hate and aggression. For thousands of years, like the rest of the Middle East, Israel has been fought over and fought over and fought over. Two religions, Jews and Muslims now want to call this place home due to their history. The Jews claimed the land after coming back to their homeland at the end of World War 2. Ever sense, the Jews and Muslims who previously resided their and called it home have been basically at all-out war for the past 60 years.  If you haven’t look at any news for the past few years, you can look at more recent events and history here. I’m going to give my point of view and of course maybe a way to solve all of our problems, which is probably impossible.

                So first of all, I know that these two sides have been duking it out for a very long time.  They’ve had their history and over time they’ve grown to hate each other so much. Along with the extreme hate towards each other, they’re also angry with everyone else in this world.  Each group being oppressed has led to a toxic and dangerous hate all across the world. All these terrible emotions being bottled into this little piece of land about the size of New Jersey is a bad thing. The hate won’t ever go away, the way the Israeli government is treating Palestine and the attacks on the Israeli government is making things worse. I feel like nothing is going to change, emotions are too high and the only way for and end through war is a full scale invasion of Palestine. Millions of lives would be lost and along with just that country, other nations around the world would join in the fighting and maybe just causing all-out war around the world. We don’t want that, nuclear weapons have somewhat helped prevent that but having an invasion in Israel could have serious consequences. The scary part is this could very much happen. The leaders of Israel seem very aggressive and not afraid to send the whole world into chaos.  

                I feel like the only solution that sounds okay is the impossible one. The world needs to band together, find a way to work out the problems without causing mass destruction. Making Israel a neutral international state sounds like the perfect idea but that won’t happen, there is too much hate on that land fueled by thousands of years of oppression and war.

The Middle East

                Known as the powder keg of the world, the Middle East causes tensions everywhere. The fighting never stops and due to different relationships with countries, the whole world is involved. Throughout history, the Middle East has been fighting. There has always been fighting and I feel like there will always be fighting. We’ve had the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Egyptians, Romans, Arabs, and Turks rule these lands and the list goes on and on and on. All these nations fought and battle; the sand of the Middle East is red with blood of millions of people fighting. It won’t stop and sooner or later things could get worse.

                Religion seems to be the thing that causes all these wars. Along with religion, we see oil, differing cultures, interpretations of religion, and diplomacy with other countries playing a role in all the fighting in The Middle East. All these factors have led to not just war between two nations but an extremely complex and confusing war between different groups and terrorism and everyone. Different rebel groups and many governments make the Middle East an impossible place to create boundaries, especially boundaries everyone can agree on. It’s a giant mess, in the Middle East, and fixing it doesn’t seem possible.

                Now let’s talk about our country and US influence in the Middle East. We, like every other country in the world, have major influence and are the puppet masters of what goes on in the Middle East. Other powerful countries such as Russia, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom also take part in this battle for power in the Middle East. We’ve been in many wars in the Middle East, spending billions of dollars to keep the country’s interests protected. 9/11 is of course what started our major influence in the Middle East.  We sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan leaving with almost nothing to show for it. The Middle East is a black hole for lives, money, and diplomacy; you can put in a lot but get almost nothing in return. The reason we stay in is oil. Oil runs our country and everywhere in the Middle East is full of it. Do we get out what we put in though? We spend billions and billions of dollars trying to be friends with countries like Saudi Arabia when all we get out of it is 13% of our oil supply. 13% isn’t that much and I’m not sure if it’s worth millions of lives just for some oil and not even that much.

                There is the question of course, that if we don’t intervene, what would be different? Would it be the same or would the Middle East be home for terrorists? I think we would be a lot safer if we just stayed out of affairs in the Middle East. Defend our own country will make our world better than trying to stop a force (terrorism) that will always be present. Terrorism can’t just lose too many battles then lose the war and disappear, they will always be present and antagonizing them will be bad for everyone. Terrorist groups wouldn’t hate us and a lot less people would die. America needs to realize that being a police force, although good at times, can be a very bad thing.