So, it appears Iran in not wining the popularity competition in the Middle East ?
Wow; is anyone really shocked?
What was missing from the article is the common knowledge that Arabs don’t trust Persians regardless of the so called common religion.
I’m not sure the Iranian leadership is too terribly upset with a survey run by an American firm and I’m really confident they are not trying to win a popularity contest.
Is there value to having the information from this survey?
Yes!
The DoS and other agencies could, and I stress the concept of ‘could’, utilize this information for building programs designed to minimize the Iranian government’s actions and influence in the Middle East.
As time goes on and the Arab Spring, now the Arab Summer, continues to bring about change in the Middle East, never forget the baseline assumption that Arabs don’t trust, really trust, Persians / Iran . P.S. The vision of the “ Persian Empire ” is based on owning the Arabs, not working with them.
Two other quick comments based on a few interesting articles I read today.
SYRIAN OPPOSITION TRAINING?
I’ve talked about the concept of a ‘shadow government’ operating out of Turkey and how that must sit with Assad and Iran , but this story brings a new twist.
It’s one thing for a large group of individuals representing who knows how many different ‘agendas’ to sit down and pretend as if they are forming a new government for Syria….. but training…… breakouts… classes?
I didn’t dig into this too deep, but I would like to know who are the ‘instructors’ and who set up the training; not to mention who is paying for it.
A ‘Technocratic’ flavor to this shadow government could go a long ways towards other nations approaching them in behind the scene support.
Can they keep the fractional groups truly on a Technocratic path is the real question.
There is more to this story and it will be interesting to see who picks up on it.
As a side note; don’t overlook the issue of Turkey , “The Ottoman Empire” continuing to ‘host’ these meetings….. The “Persian Empire ” doesn’t!!!!
TENT CITY A SIGN OF BIG TROUBLES!
I will get into this topic more this weekend after I’ve finished following up on a few issues mentioned in this story.
The short version is this; Israel is facing an ever increasing problem from both the Liberal, Academic movement and the more sinister Muslim Brotherhood movement.
How these two will inadvertently combine to stress the Israeli government to the breaking point is going to be the next real story of the Summer of 2011.