Feeling cheerful? I'll soon put a stop to that!

I was looking at a map of the Middle East this morning.  Not a pretty sight!  

I was prompted to it by an article over at The Coffee House by Mr. Seth J. Frantzman (no, me neither!) who informs us that President Trump is not alone in his ridiculous tweeting habit.  Apparently, that thug, Recep Erdogan, who runs Turkey these days, has taken exceptional displeasure at a tweet by the Foreign Minister of the U.A.E., a certain Sheik Abdullah bin Zayed.  Here's a photo of these two, er, 'lovelies' taken in happier, non-tweeting days! 

 

Alas, young Abdullah forgot his diplomatic niceties and recently tweeted to the effect that Turkey had committed a war crime in 1916 - shockin'! shockin'! - and the Turks were not amused!  The Mayor of Ankara threatened to rename the street in which the U.A.E. embassy is situated after some Turkish military commander from the Ottoman era.

 

Of course, this diplomatic hissy-fit is merely part of a gradual re-alignment of powers in the Middle East which, quite apart from national egotisms is further bedevilled by fundamental - and I do mean fundamental! - religious differences.  As I have mentioned before, my knowledge of the Middle East is limited to the end of runway #2 at Bahrein airport where I lived in a tent for nearly a year in the early '60s with occasional forays across to what was then called the Trucial Oman states to 'play at soldiers'.  Needless to say, like so many Englishmen before and since, I instantly turned into a desert-lover!

 

I assume that buried somewhere in the Foreign Office there are some Middle East swots who actually have a detailed knowledge of affairs in that perpetually blood-soaked region.  Mind you, as you can see from my map, it is a colossal area and apart from the actual delineated nations, there are swarms of sub-groups most of whom, these days, are exceedingly well-armed as well as ferocious.  My advice, as 'an old Middle East hand', is just keep the hell out of it - but be nice to the ones with oil!

 

 

Comments

[Whyaxye]

"Needless to say, like so many Englishmen before and since, I instantly turned into a desert-lover!"

Do you mean that you developed a fondness for the terrain, or that you turned into a smouldering Omar Sharif type?

[Bob]

Twitter use should be banned for top level government officials, except possibly press secretaries. It lets them broadcast any ill-considered, harebrained notion. Sad!

[JK]

Well ... let us hope that Messrs. Trump and Bannon are so involved they ignore the Erdogan part of the "Twitosphere" over at least, the weekend.

https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2018/1/5/erdogan-accuses-us-israel-of-meddling-in-iran-pakistan

&

https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2018/1/3/irans-rouhani-tells-erdogan-protests-to-end-in-days

(let's hope too that that Turkish Iranian link is the old landline laid down in the early 1970s!)

[Whitewall]

I can just picture Corporal Duff astride his camel!

[David Duff]

No, no, 'W', more a 'Lawrence of Arabia' type, I like to think! Actually, he had it easy swanning around on the back of a camel, all I had was my army boots and let me tell you walking across desert is diabolical - stretches of shale, then stretches of loose sand that lets you sink in to the ankles, and then stretches of small rocks packed closely together so that your ankles are constantly being twisted. The only good thing was that no-one was shooting at me!

[AussieD]

Should have joined the RN mate. Far more civilized. Or the Royal Marines :)

[jimmy glesga]

Can anyone give any reason other than oil to explain our involvement in the Middle East? Now that the USA has given recognition to Jerusalem as the Israeli capital perhaps it is time Israel joined NATO. That would stir things up.