20060106
       The constant stream of bad news out of the Middle East this week brings back into the forefront the reality that the region is one of the most politically unstable in the world. The combination of deadly homicide bombings in Iraq, Ariel Sharon’s illness, and the dumbfounding rhetoric of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad create the air of a region ready to explode into chaos at any moment.
         That sensation of barely controlled chaos underscores one of the basic phenomenon that drive the modern Middle East forward, that is the fact that all of the events of the Middle East are tied together in a complex web that cannot be easily separated and compartmentalized.
         The problem with the Middle East is that the entire region staggers under the impossible influence of totalitarianism and radical Isalm, and that influence touches every event that occurs there, however small. Whether the news is a Baathist Sunni insurgency in Iraq or the illness of the leader of Israel, all news must be viewed in how the totalitarian regimes and radicals will react or capitalize on it.
         Now is a fragile time for the region. Simultaneously, there is instability in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. Any one of these countries has the power, because of their internal turmoil, to cause problems that can engulf the entire region. The danger of the sum of them is almost incalculable.
         The nations of the Middle East and the West must look to this time with caution. If they fail to do so, disaster could be the result.
DLH
