Richardcyoung.com

The Online Home of Author and Investor, Dick Young

  • Home
  • Debbie Young
  • Jimmy Buffett
  • Key West
  • Your Survival Guy
  • How We Are Different
  • Paris
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • The Great Reset
  • The Swiss Way
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • Dick Young
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool
  • Anti-Gun Control
  • Anti-Digital Currency
  • Joel Salatin and Alfie Oakes
  • World Gold Mine Production
  • Fidelity and Vanguard Since 1971

After ISIS: The Middle East Truth Revealed

August 22, 2018 By Richard C. Young

Two U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft fly over northern Iraq Sept. 23, 2014, after conducting airstrikes in Syria. The aircraft were part of a large coalition strike package that was the first to strike Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets in Syria. (DoD photo by Senior Airman Matthew Bruch, U.S. Air Force/Released)

In The American Conservative, Geoffrey Aronson, chairman and co-founder of The Mortons Group, blasts the idea that Sykes-Picot, the post-World War I agreement that carved up the Middle East into nation-states, is dead. Many pushed that idea as truth during the rise of the cross-border ISIS insurgency, but in light of Bashar al-Assad’s victory, it would appear the declaration of death for the old order in the Middle East was premature. Aronson writes (abridged):

Not too long ago, the know-it-all set was unanimous in its view that Sykes-Picot was dead.

The demise of the Middle East’s state system was beyond question. Libya did not survive Barack Obama’s decision to unseat Muammar Gaddafi. The Islamic State was knocking on Baghdad’s doors, and Syria’s Assad controlled far less than one half of his country. That the old territorial order of nation-states in the heart of the Middle East—the map created by the British-French agreement to carve up the corpse of the Ottoman empire after its defeat in World War I—had become an artifact of history was taken for granted.

The assumption that the national identities forged from Sykes-Picot’s template over the last century could be swept away like so much dust was, shall we say, premature. Washington, against its instincts, was forced to save Iraq from the Islamic State assault—in league with Iran no less—and to vote with Baghdad against the quixotic Kurdish quest for independence. ISIS’s caliphate, another new old idea exhausted by history, has been strangled in its cradle, and its self-declared caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, like some of his more unfortunate predecessors, is a fugitive in his own land.

Washington, unlike Moscow, has yet to be convinced of the enduring value of Sykes-Picot and the primacy of state sovereignty.

Americans are totally oblivious of Syria’s history.

The challenge posed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria has been contained if not annihilated. Before our very eyes, and whatever our preferences, the idea of the state is prevailing against the naysayers and those making war against it. This idea, and the single-minded drive to reaffirm sovereignty and authority against challengers, is the preeminent legacy of Sykes-Picot. Washington, take note.

Read more here.

If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for my free weekly email.

Related Posts

  • ISIS on the Run
  • ISIS/Somalis in Minneapolis
  • America Can't Fix the Middle East
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Richard C. Young
Richard C. Young
Richard C. Young is the editor of Young's World Money Forecast, and a contributing editor to both Richardcyoung.com and Youngresearch.com.
Richard C. Young
Latest posts by Richard C. Young (see all)
  • The Best Place to Cut Spending - October 3, 2023
  • ESTABLISHMENT NIGHTMARE: Tucker Carlson Interviews RFK Jr. - October 3, 2023
  • Can Cinnamon Inhibit Early-Stage Prostate Cancer? - October 2, 2023

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • To Me There Isn’t a Better Way to Live
  • Protection While Traveling in France
  • Mises and Rothbard Finally Get Their Due
  • Why You Miss <em>Richard C. Young’s Monster Master List</em>
  • SVB – There’s Panic in the Air
  • When the Black Swan Swoops In for You
  • Vermont Abandoned, Dairy Farm Economy Devastated
  • A Cashless Society Is A Debacle for Americans
  • Robo-Advisors: When You Have a Lot More to Lose than Money
  • BEYOND RUSSIA: America Strengthens India Ties to Counter China

Our Most Popular Posts

  • Bidenomics: Distrust of Public Officials and Institutions
  • Skyrocketing Costs of Building a Green Grid Are Starting
  • The Government Attack on Americans' Independence
  • "The Goal Is to Break Down the Individual"
  • “Doctor, What Are You Doing?” “Nothing,” He Said
  • Can Cinnamon Inhibit Early-Stage Prostate Cancer?
  • Fighting Russian Power with a Hill of Crosses
  • Investing Habits of the Fairly Wealthy: #10 Powerball
  • “Oh, This Is Prime Real Estate,” They Say
  • The Best Place to Cut Spending

Compensation was paid to utilize rankings. Click here to read full disclosure.

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • “Doctor, What Are You Doing?” “Nothing,” He Said
  • Has Tupperware Survived Its Brush with Death?
  • Biden’s “War” On Fossil Fuels Keeps Shale Drillers Idle as Oil Prices Rise
  • “Oh, This Is Prime Real Estate,” They Say
  • Investing Habits of the Fairly Wealthy: #10 Powerball
  • “Then One Day the Grandfather was Gone”
  • India Choose to Promote Coastal Trade. The US Should Too
  • “No Way I’m Spending That Much on Those”
  • The War Machine’s Manpower Problem
  • Profits Becoming Elusive in China

RSS Yoursurvivalguy.com

  • “Doctor, What Are You Doing?” “Nothing,” He Said
  • Bidenflation Making It Harder to Retire
  • Will Illinois Gun Owners Register Their Firearms?
  • “Oh, This Is Prime Real Estate,” They Say
  • Survive and Thrive September 2023: “I Want to Be a Farmer, a Garbageman, or Tom Brady”
  • Tucker and O’Reilly Discuss the Three People Everyone Needs
  • Investing Habits of the Fairly Wealthy: #10 Powerball
  • Your Survival Guy: “Life on Main Street Hasn’t Been This Hard in a While”
  • Your Retirement Life: Striped Bass Fishing off Block Island
  • “Then One Day the Grandfather was Gone”

US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool

Five Year Treasury Yield

“The Economy Is Buried Under Trillions in Debt”

“Never Back Down” Fundraising Upbeat

“Doctor, What Are You Doing?” “Nothing,” He Said

The Best Place to Cut Spending

Copyright © 2023 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives