The Shrine

Dejavu,

Long story short, rebels overthrew a government they didn't like, causing the former country leader to flee. Now a foreign giant (relatively speaking) is getting involved in support of the former regime, in this case it is Saudi Arabia instead of Russia from last year. The difference is rather than just feeding in weapons, Saudi Arabia has blatantly invaded.

The larger picture here is that this ignites a major conflict between Sunni and Shiite forces. On the Sunni side in Yemen, Al-Qaeda is a major force; effectively Al-Qaeda and Saudi Arabia are aligned in goals here since they are both attacking the Shiites.

One day one of these crazy fucking nations is gonna get their hands on a nuke.

Eric wrote:One day one of these crazy fucking nations is gonna get their hands on a nuke.

I find it far more likely one will find themselves the target of a nuke (because they almost got their hands on a nuke, lol).

More likely than that, is that they get bombed into submission by conventional coalition (whoever that may be) air strikes.

1) Much as I hate to be the blase one on this, Shiite-Sunni wars are nothing new. They were the primary focus of the region for HUNDREDS of years before Israel and America moved in next door and gave them new angers and targets.

2) Should I even say it? All these nations want nuclear weapons because Israel has 500 of them or so by now, all illegal, as well as ambitions towards the territory of any Arab state that has refused to recognize Israel's existence. I am not going to be the usual critic of Israeli policy to any great extent since I know most don't like it when I go off about it; but the chance of stopping nuclear proliferation in the region is about zero as long as Israel is 1) smuggling nuclear yellowcake, 2) producing "Greater Israel" maps that show all their neighbors' land as Israeli land one day, and 3) having AIPAC point fingers and the US military at people like Saddam going "Oh my God the Arabs are smuggling nuclear yellowcake too!", particularly when Bush sold Saddam those weapons in the first place, and Halliburton sold Iran nuclear secrets back in 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Plumbat

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/06/1 ... ch-To-Iran

Long story short, rebels overthrew a government they didn't like, causing the former country leader to flee.

Made me think of the Clash song "Washington Bullets":

Well the people fought the leader,
And up he flew...
With no Washington bullets what else could he do?

I doubt that we'll ever see all out war between Sunni and Shia nations (primarily Saudi Arabia and Iran respectively). I think we may see something akin to the Cold War with both sides fighting proxy battles vying for influence and trying to keep the other in check.

Religion of pieces.

Middle East should be called The Middle Ages.