Middle-Eastern Coalition: Difference between revisions

Prior to the 1980s, these tended to be secular military dictatorships or socialist/nationalist regimes (like the real-life abortive attempt to set up a United Arab Republic combining Egypt, Syria and Iraq, as well as Libya's attempt). Since the rise in fundamentalism, Iranian Revolution and especially 9/11, a more popular idea is to combine it into one huge poorly defined "Inevitable Caliphate" theocracy. This is al-Qaida's primary war aim, but it is probably not in the stars -- atstars—at least not if Iran and Turkey have anything to say about it. Beyond that, al-Qaida is, at the end of the day, a lunatic fringe; most other Islamists are non-violent nationalists who probably have a worse view of Osama bin Laden than most Westerners ([[Don't Shoot the Message|"You're making us ''all'' look evil!"]] is what they usually say), and al-Qaida itself -- accordingitself—according to the CIA, [[MI 6]], French Intelligence, Russian Intelligence, and pretty much everyone else -- iselse—is down to about 300 guys on the run in the mountains of Pakistan.

** [[wikipedia:United Arab Republic|The United Arab Republic]], a union between Egypt and Syria between 1958 and 1961. This one had a promising start, but President Gamal Abdel Nasser, despite his personal popularity with the Arab street--evenstreet—even in Syria--andSyria—and his government fumbled the details. He favored fellow Egyptians over Syrians in high posts, and generally treated Syria as a junior partner--orpartner—or to be more precise, as a group of new Egyptian provinces--ratherprovinces—rather than an equal partner. The union was dissolved by a coup in Syria, supported by the country's disgruntled business community and bureaucrats, that reasserted Damascus' independence. Egypt continues to use the formal description "United Arab Republic" until after Nasser's death in 1970; in 1971, it adopted the description "Arab Republic of Egypt".

** [[wikipedia:Federation of Arab Republics|The Federation of Arab Republics (1972-1977)]], a federation between Libya, Egypt, and Syria, which Sudan also intended to join. It was ratified by all three countries, but ultimately fell apart because its leaders couldn't agree on the specific terms of the merger. The stalemate in the [[Arab-Israeli Conflict|1973 War]], which some Egyptians and Syrians blamed on the failure of promised Libyan (and Algerian) assistance to materialize, <ref>They were supposed to make an amphibious attack on the Coastal Plain; whether this would have achieved anything directly is doubtful, but it would probably have relieved pressure on the Egyptians and Syrians in the Sinai and Golan.</ref> did not help matters. The straw that broke the camel's back, however, was Egypt's decision to enter peace talks with Israel, announced by Sadat's trip to Jerusalem and speech before the Knesset in November 1977.