re: #2 Destro

Why does it surprise you? Anyone? The USA has been doing this since Afghanistan in the 80s, The USA did the exact same thing in Yugoslavia/Bosnia/Kosovo.

You’re right in that it shouldn’t surprise. I should clarify, the most surprising thing to me is that so many otherwise smart, engaged thinkers I meet here and elsewhere give the, “Wow…never thought of it that way…” response whenever I discuss Iran and Saudi Arabia as states promoting two ‘heretical’ Islamic ideologies, whose own ‘cold war’ bleeds into pretty much every major issue in the region. Many know that the two governments pretty much hate each other, but I find a general lack any contextualized understanding of spillover effects, or of the proxies involved (aside from - occasionally - knowing that Iran arms Hezbollah).

I see the Syrian situation as a case of putting any lessons learned from Lebanon and Afghanistan right down the memory hole.