Originally Posted by
langleybaston
There is a basic error in the mind set "if only we had left them alone, they would leave us alone". As if radical Islam and the Caliphate were post colonial constructs, which, to anyone with a serious knowledge of history, they are not........
Guess there is some "Colonial impact" in so far as natural age-old Tribal boundaries were over-ridden with new Colonial boundaries super-imposed. Same can be said of Africa where the Tribal layout was, to a fair degree, ignored - with a resulting fallout as typified by Zimbabwe where Political parties are, to a great extent, tribal-based.
Now, as
H 'n' H is not the sharpest tool in the box, a genuine question ( & apologies for continuing the Thread creep). Is it not a case that, during the Cold War, we were all too busy with the "Superpower Stand-off"/proxy mini-WW III's and so left the various Dictators in power who, in their own ways, "managed" such extremists for us (ie kept the lid on things for their own benefit and in their own ways). Once the Cold War was over (separate debate that given what Putin is up to), and finding ourselves at a bit of a "loose end," we turned our attention to said Dictators and "meddled" on human rights/oil/WMD/whatever grounds, thereby distracting/eliminating the various "managers" from, erm, managing the extremists for us. Is that part of the issue we see today? As I say, genuine question.