TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: Syria, Iraq: The Middle East Explained

Monday, June 30, 2014

Syria, Iraq: The Middle East Explained

Up to the Minute "Handy" Map of the Middle East * Could Change any Minute

This is circulating in the internet among my American friends.

I want to state that I'm getting cranky reading Arabic blogs that blame the US for the problems in the Middle East. The destructive forces that have risen in the Middle East did not originate in America. The out-of-this-world killing, destruction, disregard for human rights, lack of unity, duplicity sprung from that dessert.

Newton's Law has been proven true: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" -- ISIS is that reaction.

The following is not meant to offend anyone, but illustrates just how confused people are at the complexity of the Middle East situation.

I continue to pray for peace in the Middle East.

The Middle East Explained
Let me Explain

We support the Iraqi government in the fight against ISIS.

We don’t like ISIS, but ISIS is supported by Saudi Arabia who we do like.

We don’t like Assad in Syria. We support the fight against him, but ISIS is also fighting against him.

We don’t like Iran, but Iran supports the Iraqi government in its fight against ISIS.

So some of our friends support our enemies, some enemies are now our friends,

and some of our enemies are fighting against our other enemies, who we want to lose,

but we don’t want our enemies who are fighting our enemies to win.

If the people we want to defeat are defeated, they could be replaced by people we like even less.

And all this was started by us invading a country to drive out terrorists and find weapons

of mass destruction that were not actually there.

Caption: Pay Attention because I'm only going to do this once, OK?

Tags: Middle East, joke, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Saudi, Assad, Maliki, Isis, Isil, Daash

Read also:
Muslims Condemn ISIS

The Lay Person's View of Assad's Comeback

Khawla Bint Al Azwar - 7th Century Muslim Woman Warrior

Tags: ISIS, ISIL, Islamic State, Syria, Iraq, Middle East, Assad, Maliki, war, revolution, editorial, cartoon

This is all for now,

Cecilia

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's official website is ceciliabrainarddotcom. She is the award-winning author and editor of 22 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Selected Stories, Vigan and Other Stories, and more. She edited Growing Up Filipino 1, 2, & 3, Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and other books.. Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized. Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She has served in the Board of literary arts groups such as PEN, PAWWA (Pacific Asian American Writers West), among others.