Too much coffee?

Is that the reason the Middle East is always in turmoil?  Maybe they should sneak a little illicit booze in now and then to calm themselves down, instead of consuming endless cups of that syrupy, caffeine-laden goop they guzzle all day.  

All hepped up on caffeine and waging another war.

After 53 years of the al-Asaad family's brutal regime in Syria, Bashar has finally been deposed and fled to Moscow.  Will it change anything?  No.  You can be sure that the usual and much-entrenched patterns of group dominance, religious dogma and rule through fear will prevail.  Afterall, the leader of the coup is a Mujahideen fighter whose sole objective is to wage jihad for Islam.  He's not a democratic leader who will encourage law and order and elections.  The notion would be laughable, if it weren't so dangerous.  

Except for Israel, there is no such thing as a democracy in any country in the region.  And the only reason Israel is a democracy is because it is an interloper, not native and not susceptible to regional and tribal rigidity. 

Frankly, the only countries that (sort of)follow rules of war are those in the British model set down centuries ago.  Elections are how governments are changed.  Wars are waged only when a country's safety is threatened.  I know that's an exaggeration, but it's generally true.  

Every country in Africa is the same:  Civil wars depose corrupt governments and are replaced by "democratic" liberation armies, that quickly themselves become corrupt dictatorships.  This necessitates another civil war and the whole thing starts all over.  Look at Cuba.  Castro was supposed to usher in democracy, but he quickly became a brutal dictator. 

Look at Nigeria.  When the British were in charge, there were two states:  the North and the South.  When the British were kicked out, 36 states sprang up along tribal lines and chaos and corruption emerged as per usual.  Look at Zimbabwe.  Robert Mugabe was a saint who quickly became one of the most brutal tyrants in history.

And so on and so forth.

But if you want to know what happened in Syria, ask Barack Obama.  Remember when he announced his famous red line?  If Syria crossed it and used chemical weapons on its people, the US avowed it would invade militarily immediately.  al-Asaad crossed it, killing thousands of people, and what did Obama do?  Backed down.  That's where it all got out-of-control.  

So a big shout-out to Barack for this unholy mess!