A foreign policy expert named David Wurmser writes about the various players in the Middle East and how the dominos are beginning to fall. He sees Iran as faltering, Turkey as rising, the Russians as protectors of the orthodox Christians of the region, the Chinese as keeping their options open, Qatar behind some moves, and the future of Syria very much in doubt and at play.
The mess he describes could fall out in many different ways, depending on how quickly the Iranian mess resolves and how nimbly the Erdogan regime in Turkey and Putin’s Russia play their hands. Complicating everything is the conflict between Shia and Sunni Muslims which turns places like Syria and Lebanon into three dimensional chess matches.
Though he doesn’t focus on Israel, it hunkers down in the midst of all this mess like a porcupine, willing and demonstrably able to badly hurt whoever comes their way. It is a region with too many players violently jostling for elbow room.
The whole thing makes my head hurt. Wurmser’s column is not for the faint of heart.
