KISSINGER LAYS IT OUT —“ISIS’ claim has given the millennium-old split between

KISSINGER LAYS IT OUT

—“ISIS’ claim has given the millennium-old split between the Shiite and Sunni sects of Islam an apocalyptic dimension. The remaining Sunni states feel threatened by both the religious fervor of ISIS as well as by Shiite Iran, potentially the most powerful state in the region. Iran compounds its menace by presenting itself in a dual capacity. On one level, Iran acts as a legitimate Westphalian state conducting traditional diplomacy, even invoking the safeguards of the international system. At the same time, it organizes and guides nonstate actors seeking regional hegemony based on jihadist principles: Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria; Hamas in Gaza; the Houthis in Yemen.

Thus the Sunni Middle East risks engulfment by four concurrent sources: Shiite-governed Iran and its legacy of Persian imperialism; ideologically and religiously radical movements striving to overthrow prevalent political structures; conflicts within each state between ethnic and religious groups arbitrarily assembled after World War I into (now collapsing) states; and domestic pressures stemming from detrimental political, social and economic domestic policies.”—

I don’t usually agree with his prescriptions but I almost always agree with his diagnoses.

On the other hand, I don’t see the value in NOT crushing BOTH Isis and IRAN, and then going home and throwing up a wall.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-path-out-of-the-middle-east-collapse-1445037513