For Thursday - Middle East, Pt 2

On Wednesday, we discussed the major events in Israel's history and its current predicament. For Thursday, we will look at states such as Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran and ask who the major individual actors are as well as groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

See the class syllabus for a complete reading list (including optional readings), but here are some required readings...

Iraq:

Realist political scientists were almost universally opposed to the war in Iraq. Why? Go to this Op-Ed for the argument.

Some idealists were for the war, arguing that Saddam Hussein was an "Islamic fascist" who was too dangerous to be allowed to continue in power. One such person making this argument was Christopher Hitchens, the erudite, left-wing social critic (and an admirer of Leon Trotsky). Go here for his powerful argument in favor of the war. Read the whole article, not just the first page.

Modern Iraq is a very artificial state whose borders ignore the complex ethnic pattern in the area. Here is a BBC article on the Kurds, an oppressed minority in Iraq who have no state but who live in Iraq, Turkey, and parts of Iran and elsewhere in the region.

Optional: Here is a very useful timeline of the Iraq war from the Council on Foreign Relations.

Lebanon:

Lebanon's situation is very complicated, since the government is powerless to stop Hezbollah, which runs a de facto government on the border with Israel. Here is a biography of Hassan Nasrallah, who is one of the two or three most powerful figures in Lebanon.

Remember when we looked at Israel's wall, and discussed the fact that it has protected Israel from suicide bombers? Well, today's BBC story says that Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, now has rockets that can reach Tel Aviv. Go here for the story.

Iran:

All we can do is scratch the surface. But we will want to examine the political situation, including the recent presidential election, when hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets to protest what they saw as a rigged election in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected. I will leave it to you to find some information - maybe on cfr.or or fpa.org or the BBC. But do some reading - not a lot, but some.

Optional: Iran is beset by ethnic strife, with Kurds, Persians, Azeris and Baluchis living in separate but overlapping areas. The Azeris in particular have grievances, and in the recent past there have been violent protests. Go here and here for information on the Azeri issue in modern Iran.

That's it!