captain_spalding said:

Cymek said:

captain_spalding said:

I think that does, indirectly, have to do with oil.

If the US, and to a lesser extent, the rest of the West, doesn’t express a concern about conflict between Israel and Arabs/Iranians, and perhaps try to keep Israel on the leash, then Arab countries not directly involved (like Gulf states, who control a lot of oil) might decide to demonstrate the price of disinterest.

If we are a fair nation we should acknowledge the damage done to the Middle East over the 19th – 21st centuries and perhaps this is why terrorists exist.
We don’t though its all they are the baddies and we just twiddled our thumbs doing nothing wrong.
Sure the Middle East has fanatics but that’s religion for you
A United Middle East would be a powerful economic block and we couldn’t have that either

The West, particularly the British, the French, and the Americans certainly did a lot in comparatively recent times to make the situation a lot more complicated.

But, the region has hardly gone from morning smoko to lunchtime in the past 3,000 – 5,000 years without some bunch or other ‘smiting’ some other bunch over some religious, ethnic, or territorial ‘issue’.

The West is just the latest ingredient in the mix, but it has to be admitted that the disputes today largely stem from dumb decisions made by the West in the 20th century.

It’s not as though continental Europe hasn’t been as warlike this past 3000 years