Is The Middle East Coming Unraveled?

It would appear so, at least on the surface.

In Iraq, the perception is that the terrorists have the upper hand. Even though, when engaging US troops, the terrorists haven't won a single gun battle. They have, however, been extremely successful in turning the American population against their own leadership. The terrorists know that they can't win on the battlefield, but if they can consistently pick off US soldiers now and again, they can win the war of public image. They know Americans have no patience for a war that lasts more than a few months. So they hold out, inflicting little in the way of physical damage, but causing intense psychological trauma.

The same thing happened in Lebanon between the Israeli military and Hezbollah terrorists in the hills of Lebanon. Hezbollah knew they were no match for Israel's military strength, so they brought the war into Lebanon's infrastructure - hiding weapons in hospitals, and using office buildings as shields. They knew it would only be a matter of time before the West called for an end to the "Israeli aggression." After all, they learned how to fight a successful public image war in Iraq.

In both cases, large modern military forces were proven impotent in the theater of urban warfare. The terrorists know that Western armies are unwilling to wage the kind of war it would take to truly eradicate the terrorists - a war of total annihilation. That doesn't fly in today's world of media-covered battles. Just the fact that civilians are still living in Baghdad should tell most people that this is not a war like WWII where cities were left in total ruins. For the most part in Iraq, business goes on as usual around the fighting. This is something completely new to the world of warfare and should be appreciated as such.

But aside from who may be winning the physical war vs. the media war, there has been one constant force behind almost all of the major unrest in the Middle East - IRAN.

This isn't some conservative attempt to take the focus off of Iraq, this is a fact. And if we shrug it off, we'll be as guilty as those who, through their complacency, allowed Nazi Germany to rise to power in the 1930s. We are facing a similar threat now, and it needs to be recognized and dealt with.

Iran is behind Hezbollah, which is now marching on the Lebanese parliament demanding the ouster of its Prime Minister. If that pro-Western government falls, it would go a long way to proving Iran's power in the region. If the US leaves Iraq due to the insurgency that is also backed by Iran, it would create a vacuum that would result in Iran controlling a third of the world's oil supply by going into Iraq. That would provoke Sunni powers (like Saudi Arabia) to stand up to Iranian expansion. None of this would be pleasant for a world conveniently ignoring what needs to be done in Iraq by burying their heads in the sand.