The Four State Solution to Peace in the Mid-East

I believe there will never be peace in the middle east until the following takes place:

1. Iraq and Syria are split into three countries: Sunnistan, Shiastan, and Kurdistan.
2. Palestine becomes a sovereign nation.

Iraq and Syria are pseudo countries that were created after WWI. The British and the French Sykes Picot Agreement carved up the middle east and defined borders and countries that did not correspond to the ethnic and religious difference of the people. This was done to control, manipulate, and create chaos for the people because of the oil that was discovered in the region.

Palestine was not made a sovereign country, but was given to Israel by the British Balfour Declaration to do with it as they will. The difference is Israel is a Jewish state and Palestine is an Arab Territory. Israel continues to encroach into the Palestinian territory by colonizing the territory. Further, they have restricted Palestinian travel by building walls and gates controlled by the Israeli military. They defend themselves from rocket attacks by using the Iron Dome which is a very sophisticated anti-missile system in which the U.S. helped fund and develop.

Below is the Balfour Declaration. Lord Rothchild was the head of the Jewish Zionist movement in 1917. Lord Balfour was the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in 1917.

The Sunni are the majority population in the mid-east, followed by the Shia, and then the Kurds.

The Sunni believe that Muslims should be ruled by a Caliphate. A Caliphate is chosen by someone who has the knowledge and wherewithal to lead a Sunni nation.

The Shia believe that Muslims should be ruled by an Imam, who is a direct descendant of Mohammad. Iran's Supreme Leader is an Imam. Iran's major population are Shia.

The Kurds are mix of both religions and some are even Christians. This is because the Kurds have never had a homeland, but are a more nomadic people. However, they are mainly grouped in the north of Iraq and Syria, and the south of Turkey. They are also sitting on a very oil rich territory that everybody wants.

Iraq's majority are Shia, The minority are Sunni. Saddam Hussein was a Sunni, who ruled with an Iron fist in order to control the Shia majority. Currently, there is a Shia President, Haider al-Abadi who was basically installed by the west.

Syria's majority are Sunni. However, the country is ruled by a Shia, Bashar al-Assad, who is an Alawite which is a branch of Shia. The Shia are the minority population in Syria. The news states that he used Sarin gas on his own people. Even though those people live in Syria, they are Sunni's and he doesn't like them or ISIS because they are Sunni's as well. He has created Sunni refugees that have fled to Jordan and Lebanon.

According to the Guardian News, Vladimir Putin now wants to support Bashar al-Assad's movement. The civil war that started in Syria in 2011 has left more than 240,000 dead.

ISIS is not a country, but their goal is to become a country. ISIS was created as a result of the fall of Saddam Hussein and the Ba'ath party.

His high ranking officers were sent to a prison called Camp Bucca. The mistake that was made is that they were all imprisoned collectively and could meet and plot what they were going to do when they were released.

One of the prisoners, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was to become the leader of ISIS. According to the guards, he could be described as a low profile model prisoner, so he was released early. He then joined Al Queda. After both of the Al Queda leaders were killed, he took over a branch of Al Queda. But there was a parting of the ways and he formed ISIS.

The rest is history as we all know what he is today and what ISIS is doing. The important thing is that he is a Sunni who is known as the Caliphate. His goal is to change the middle east into a Caliphate led country.

Saudi Arabia's majority are Sunni that have a tacit relationship with ISIS. They have an ongoing relationship with the U.S. where the U.S.sells them weapons and we buy their oil.. Currently, they are attacking Shia positions in Yemen with U.S. supplied F16's aircraft. The Shia in Yemen are called Houthis and have their own branch of their sect. But apparently, the Saudis don't like the Shia Houthis.

Iran's majority are Shia. They are tacitly sending troops to Syria to fight ISIS that is embedded there. The U.S. is trying to strike a deal with Iran to curtail their nuclear enrichment program and at the same time having to deal with Bashar Al Assad who is the Shia Alawite President of Syria and is fighting ISIS and making refugees of the Sunni population in Syria.

Recently, Turkey has agreed to basing U.S. aircraft in their country for the purpose of attacking ISIS. However they have used their own military to not only attack ISIS, but also the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). Apparently they feel threatened by the PKK as well as ISIS. But the PKK is also fighting ISIS. So in one way, Turkey is allied with the PKK, but in another, the PKK is their enemy. This makes for strange bedfellows indeed!

As one can see, this is a very complex dynamic that is taking place. The west seems to think that all they have to do is democratize these people and all will be well. However, the people of the middle east live by a theocracy that has been in existence for well over one thousand years.

In the west, we are free to practice a religion or no religion, if we so choose. We can go to church and pray and quote scripture, but our lives are legally ruled by government laws. In the Muslim world, they pray five times each day. Their day to day lives are ruled by the Koran and the teachings of Mohammad. Extremists interpret the Koran, just like others have interpreted the Bible to justify killings and all types of atrocities.

Currently some of our presidential candidates are taking a very simplistic view of the mid-east and think we can bomb our way out of this or put boots on the ground and have an all out war. but it's not going to work. These people are in their own three-way-civil war and are coming apart at the seams. We as a people need to understand this.

I don't believe the media and the administration have done a good job in explaining these differences of the people. They are identified by their nationalities and not their religious and ethnic difference. They do not pay allegiance to the countries they live in or recognize the borders, but to the form of Islam they practice and believe in. Therefore, they should be identified as Sunni, Shia, and Kurds, not rebels, militia, and insurgents.

When they lose their identity, they become very abstract to the uniformed and much misinformation is propagated. Even if we take out ISIS, this conflict will not end, because these people are not living in their original ethnic and cultural areas. However, due to the natural order of things, refugees are being displaced and slowly returning back to their places of origin.

Oil is a finite resource, once it is gone, there will be a huge paradigm shift as the middle east will no longer attract foreign interests and they will lose their power in the geopolitical scheme of things. But until then, I believe peace will be hard to come by unless the western world recognizes the religious differences and removes the borders separating these people from uniting with their own kind.