A request for pointers

[stonebender]

I think of my friends here as a very bright group. Perhaps this is an impossible request, but I've been thinking about the stuff going on in the Middle East for obvious reasons. It occurs to me that I'm forming opinions with less and less understanding of the situation there. Would anybody have some good places to start reading about the Middle East and the forces contributing to the mess going on there? I know people could spend a lifetime, but I'm trying to figure out a good place to start. I'd prefer online sources, but if there are some good books that would give me a general overview to start with that's good too.

Comments

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

H'mmm: the commondreams.org site seems to be decidedly biased. But I have a feeling that there are few if any sites for "unbiassed" information.

The thing is, how far back do you want to go? For at least six decades, every side has been able to justify their actions as self-defense/justice for the actions of the others. I have a kind of desire to blame the British for the whole thing (much as I blame the French for the Indochina wars), because in retreating from their empire they deliberately -- or so it seems -- drew lines (like the ones around India/Pakistan) that would create maximum conflict among the locals; and they did similarly in the Middle East.

I know, I know, you weren't asking for our personal opinions... my point really is that opinions are almost all there is to find at this point; there is no unbiassed viewpoint on where/how all this crap started.

[stonebender.livejournal.com]

H'mmm: the commondreams.org site seems to be decidedly biased. But I have a feeling that there are few if any sites for "unbiassed" information.

The thing is, how far back do you want to go? For at least six decades, every side has been able to justify their actions as self-defense/justice for the actions of the others. I have a kind of desire to blame the British for the whole thing (much as I blame the French for the Indochina wars), because in retreating from their empire they deliberately -- or so it seems -- drew lines (like the ones around India/Pakistan) that would create maximum conflict among the locals; and they did similarly in the Middle East.

I'm not sure how far back I want to go. At this point I'd settle for a scorecard. :-) Who are the main groups? Who are their leaders? What are their positions? How do they justify them? Who are their allies? Who are their enemies? It doesn't break down to nation states, even though nations are involved.

As far as British accountability, maybe so. It seems to me on some level part of the conflict is the invented nations. Weren't most of those nation's boundaries drawn by third parties with no understanding of how the people living there would naturally affiliate themselves? That's why there's Kurd and other ethnic groups spread all over in separate countries.
Anyway I shouldn't be expressing opinions on things I know so little about. Which is why I'm trying to get eddycated. :)

I know, I know, you weren't asking for our personal opinions... my point really is that opinions are almost all there is to find at this point; there is no unbiassed viewpoint on where/how all this crap started.

*sigh* I thought what I was asking might be impossible.

[snippy]

As far as British accountability, maybe so. It seems to me on some level part of the conflict is the invented nations. Weren't most of those nation's boundaries drawn by third parties with no understanding of how the people living there would naturally affiliate themselves?

If you're going back to who invented the nation, it's Rome. The Romans were trying to defeat the Jews (who lived in a country the Romans called Judea), and after killing bunches of them, the Romans renamed the country Palestine. Still had Jews in it, though--there have been Jews there all along.

The Turkish Empire held it before the British.

[stonebender.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all the links! And please disregard my comment about "invented nations". In my head I wasn't actually referring to any nation or its right to be. Its just that there seems to be a disconnect between the national borders of some of these countries and the people who would normally think of themselves as countrymen. Complicated by lots of other factors I was just thinking of one.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

History of Oil (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7374585792978336967) :)

(Though really, this isn't at all about the west coast of the Middle East. There's a lot more long-term religious history in that.)

[stonebender.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much!

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Found this just now: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Israel-Lebanon_conflict

[stonebender.livejournal.com]

This one seems like a good starting place for me. Thanks Mary