Image by Kodak Agfa via FlickrI don't believe the basic premise of this Time article completely. But increased volatility is bad enough news for that part of the world, war or no war. This is troubling.
Time: Is The Middle East On The Brink Of Another War?
last Friday's unprecedented joint visit to Beirut by the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Syria ....David Cameron's pleas to Turkey to keep open its communication channels with Israel's leaders ...... despite the outward calm, the region may be on the brink of another catastrophic war ...... exceptionally quiet and uniquely dangerous, both for the same reason ...... "As Hizballah's firepower grows," the Crisis Group notes, "so too does Israel's desire to tackle the problem before it is too late ... What is holding the current architecture in place is also what could rapidly bring it down." ...... Israel is determined to strike a devastating blow more quickly than it did during the last conflict ..... Hizballah believes its capacity to fire missiles into Tel Aviv is key to restraining Israel from returning to finish off the Shi'ite militia ..... the self-styled "axis of resistance" — Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hizballah — have deepened their alliance ..... "tensions are mounting with no obvious safety valve." ..... in the tragic tradition of Middle Eastern wars that have erupted in part because the adversaries failed to understand one another's intentions..... his movement's "divine victory" in standing up to Israel's 2006 offensive, a feat that made him a hero on the streets of the Arab world, Hizballah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah ....... the Israel-Lebanon border, where both sides have been preparing for the next war ever since the last one ended, neither desiring that option but both accepting it as inevitable ...... should Iran's nuclear facilities come under attack, Hizballah's rockets would figure prominently in Tehran's retaliation plans...... "there is no mechanism in place to either address or ease" those mounting tensionsExtensive dialogue mechanisms have to be sought. Those of use who operate in democratic frameworks tend to look down upon those who don't, and I might not want to argue with that, but if that looking down upon leads to vastly reduced engagement, that can create situations that run counter to the self interests of the larger world.
While we hope to create new realities, we have to engage with realities as they exist.
