Talk:List of conflicts in the Middle East

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Outside of Wikipedia, I have only ever heard Middle East conflict to mean "Arab-Israeli conflict" or "Israeli-Palestinian conflict". Does it really mean "any conflict which occurs in the middle east?" Is that a concept which deserves reification? If so, why not call it "List of conflicts in the Middle East"? djk

Here's what I found searching google for "Middle East conflict"


Another thing - The article makes some pretty bold statements that only a grouping of all the Presidents of the United States, CIA chiefs and Pentagon chiefs could really be justified to make. It shouldn't be assumed that the U.S. always interfered in the Middle East because of oil, combatting the Soviet Union was the primary goal of a lot of Cold War era politics. This bland simplification of U.S. post-WW2 strategy needs a big expanding on - then again, I'm with whoever wrote the above, I think this should be List of conflicts in the Middle East. The idea there's some big "Middle East conflict" perpetuated by Uncle Sam's lust for oil is fallacious at best, downright propagandistic at worst.

You are correct. What you read was some recent vandalism by an anti-American radical who calls himself Stevertigo. He literally makes up things off the top of his head, and demands that they be accepted as facts. Worse, in a view that I consider hatefully bigoted, he refers to all views by Arab historians and Arab scholars as "Zionist" or "Western", except for the views of anti-American Arabs. I am not sure whether it is a problem of honestly, or just bias to the point of blind idiocy, but he literally cannot admit that many Arabs exist that have views that differ from his own. He sees himself as the last defender of the Arab cause, even if he himself knows nothing about the subject. An analysis of his posts indicates that He is not so much pro-Arab as anti-Western and anti-Israel. RK
This article, of course, does need expansion. But the truth is that I have never read an analysis of these conflicts by an Arab scholar or historian that agrees with Stevertigo's conspiracy theories. Arabs themselves are quite willing to admit that internal politics and religion exist in their own nations, and not just in Europea and America. Most Arabs admit that they sometimes go to war against each other for their own reasons. Outside of Al Qaeda terrorists, one just doesn't find Arabs making the kinds of claims that Stevertigo does. That should tell us a something about his credibility. Finally, note that his favorite "authority" is a linguist who specializes in the development of syntax and grammar. That by him is a non-biased expert on the middle-east? RK

--- To the anonymous commenter: log in with a name, and chose an identity, Please. Its still anon, but at least it gives people an understanding of who they are dealing with. As for RK, he has gotten into the bad habit of being unreasonably defensive, ( who knows why ), and his ignorance is demonstrable with each and every entry he makes. He's human, though, and has the capacity to learn - however, he needs to experience some revelation of Goodliness in his life in order to gain perspective. But lets not dwell on him.

The truth is, that There are no Arab-Israeli conflicts now, outside of those conflicts which are part of the Middle-East conflict - Orchestrated by a political and military control system, nearly a hundred years in the making. Israel is incidental. They wanted a state, western interests said, well back you up maybe... Israel does some military jobs for western intrests, America and the west say : brother!... Its all very simple, its about oil, and these surface issues of cultural differences, and anti-semitism, and terrorism, yadda yadda... are all just deliberately derisive code-words to keep people dumb. Thats all.

Read this for a good primer. Ive been referring to this quite often, because its truth thats not often said or heard. RK has decided to become an example of a very typical archetype - the kind that is all-too-quick to call anything Anti-Israel as anti-semitic. I should also say that this inlcudes defacto anti-Israel comments - in the form "anti-US" (Israel's employer )- comments.

He jumps on anything I edit to include a quote by Noam Chomsky or anyone else "who is not an expert"... he is a fool. Of course by arguing with him, I take the great chance that that you might not know the difference. ---Stevert

When did Libya, Chad, and Sudan get moved into the Middle East? -- zero 13:16, 26 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Good points. Chad and Sudan aren't there. However, Libya is commonly discussed in regards to the middle-east conflict, funding of militant groups in the middle-east, etc. A related terminology problem may be that Americans (and maybe Europeans?) use the term "middle east" to cover a set of nations that includes what used to be called the "near East". RK 22:02, 26 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Yeah, what's Libya, Chad, Sudan, Morocco, Mauritania, and the Western Sahara doing here? They should be moved to, say, List of conflicts in the Maghreb (since the Chad and Sudan ones involve Libya.) In fact, I think I'll do that. - Mustafaa 07:58, 2 May 2004 (UTC)

Thanks Mustafaa, that War On Terrorismphrasing is good.--Samuel J. Howard 08:39, 2 May 2004 (UTC)

Should the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and U.S. invasion of Afghanistan be included here, or is that considered more within the realm of India and Pakistan? I don't think the Kashmir conflict falls into the "Middle East" region, but Afghanistan is in a gray area.

For that matter, should internal conflict, such as the Iranian Revolution be considered? How about the Kurdish-Ba'athist conflict in Iraq prompting the creation of the Iraqi no-fly zones?

-Peter

Fair questions. I wouldn't count Afghanistan as Middle Eastern, but I know some do. And internal conflict could certainly be worth adding, though the current format of the page militates against it. - Mustafaa 07:04, 23 Aug 2004 (UTC)

A lot of [1] might be good to add... as perhaps would this obscure border clash. - Mustafaa 07:58, 23 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Gulf War, an Arab-Israeli conflict?

I removed the Gulf War I link from the Arab Israeli conflict list. Is there a part of the Gulf War I've overlooked? Was it an Arab-Israeli conflict in some fashion? -Flockmeal 06:23, Aug 25, 2004 (UTC)

Someone was obviously thinking of the Scuds aimed at Tel Aviv, but I don't think it's a particularly significant point one way or another. - Mustafaa 06:32, 25 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Rediculous

Who put the 2003 Invasion of Iraq section as the US/UK/Australia/Poland Iraq conflict. Sorry shouldn't it be US/UK/Australia/Poland/Denmark/South Korea/Italy/Spain (formally)/Thailand (formally)/Japan (formally)/Netherlands (formally)/etc.-Iraq conflict. It should be US Allied invasion of Iraq, Second Gulf War, Iraq-US/Coalition war but we don't really need to list all the participants in the subheading like that it is to POV, as not all the countries involved are mentioned. Italy initially sent more troops to Iraq than Australia, why does the section mention Australia and not Italy? In short it really shouldn't list all the nations like that or else the header will look rediculous and to leave it as is would be missleading and inaccurate. Heinrich 58.165.243.109 11:59, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Egypt-Yemen War

Why does this list omit the war in Yemen, in which Egypt played a major role?

[edit] 1948

Is there a reason for starting the list with the foundation of modern Israel? People have been fighting in the Middle East for probably as long as they've been there, and over it since at least 1274 BC—hardly surprising, since it's the strategic juncture of two major landmasses (Eurasia and Africa) and two major bodies of water (the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean), and it contains large amounts of one of the most important resources of the modern era. Unless there are objections I'm going to start expanding the scope of this page. —Charles P._(Mirv) 16:23, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

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