- Joined
- Jan 5, 2006
- Messages
- 35
- Reaction score
- 6
- Location
- Belgium
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Moderate
Greetings everybody !
Looking from our old europe the development of US politics in the last few months (and thanks for the show, it is spectacular !), I start to get really puzzled concerning your future president’s foreign policy strategy,and would really like to have your opinion about this (especially towards those who voted for Trump).
For the last 40-50 years, the complete middle-east mess we’re in, and that is spreading globally, is more or less resulting of the power struggle of East (USSR, then Russia) Vs West (USA) for access of oil. This struggle for influence resulted (or is reinforced by, depending the point of view) in some kind of religious clash between sunni islam and shia Islam, giving a geopolitical map a bit like this (oversimplified I know ) :
Team USA :
Saudi Arabia (Sunni)
Israel
Turkey (Sunni)
Egypt
Pakistan
Team Russia :
Iran (Shia)
Syria (Assad mostly)
Warzone/torn :
Irak (going toward team Russia)
Afghanistan
Lebanon
Now of course this is not as clear, as Saudi Arabia went a bit too far in promoting radical Wahabism, which developped in the ugly sunni extremism we see today. This growing extremism has put USA support at odds with its traditional allies in the region (especially seeing rise of Talibans/Al Qaeda/Daesh), but this is more or less the game field at the moment. This has little changed in decades and lead us to the impossible situation we are in today.
Now is coming Trump, and for now I don’t know if he’s an idiot or a genius, but even if he’s an idiot he may be able to inadvertely move the lines in this messed up situation. By going a bit more towards Russia (apparently), USA’s policy is now totally opaque in the decade-long fight for influence in the middle east. What would it be with Iran ? Trump seems to be more willing to go against Iran, but this is not compatible with the russia strategy. And what about Israel ? Is it a draft of a complete redesign of US foreign policy, or just a guy who tend to tweet first and think after ? We already see some strange moves like Turkey starting to ‘befriend’ Russia in the fight against Sunni rebels in Syria.
All in all, we are in for some very interesting (but extremely dangerous) times ahead !
I’m really eager to hear everybody’s thoughts on this.
Looking from our old europe the development of US politics in the last few months (and thanks for the show, it is spectacular !), I start to get really puzzled concerning your future president’s foreign policy strategy,and would really like to have your opinion about this (especially towards those who voted for Trump).
For the last 40-50 years, the complete middle-east mess we’re in, and that is spreading globally, is more or less resulting of the power struggle of East (USSR, then Russia) Vs West (USA) for access of oil. This struggle for influence resulted (or is reinforced by, depending the point of view) in some kind of religious clash between sunni islam and shia Islam, giving a geopolitical map a bit like this (oversimplified I know ) :
Team USA :
Saudi Arabia (Sunni)
Israel
Turkey (Sunni)
Egypt
Pakistan
Team Russia :
Iran (Shia)
Syria (Assad mostly)
Warzone/torn :
Irak (going toward team Russia)
Afghanistan
Lebanon
Now of course this is not as clear, as Saudi Arabia went a bit too far in promoting radical Wahabism, which developped in the ugly sunni extremism we see today. This growing extremism has put USA support at odds with its traditional allies in the region (especially seeing rise of Talibans/Al Qaeda/Daesh), but this is more or less the game field at the moment. This has little changed in decades and lead us to the impossible situation we are in today.
Now is coming Trump, and for now I don’t know if he’s an idiot or a genius, but even if he’s an idiot he may be able to inadvertely move the lines in this messed up situation. By going a bit more towards Russia (apparently), USA’s policy is now totally opaque in the decade-long fight for influence in the middle east. What would it be with Iran ? Trump seems to be more willing to go against Iran, but this is not compatible with the russia strategy. And what about Israel ? Is it a draft of a complete redesign of US foreign policy, or just a guy who tend to tweet first and think after ? We already see some strange moves like Turkey starting to ‘befriend’ Russia in the fight against Sunni rebels in Syria.
All in all, we are in for some very interesting (but extremely dangerous) times ahead !
I’m really eager to hear everybody’s thoughts on this.