They internalised a lesson that for the security of the West- Middle East has to be perennially destabilised. Simply translated, it meant never to allow the Islamic Middle East to threaten the West again. However, the Middle East had still to be tamed and the humiliation meted out by Iran during the hostage crisis had to be avenged. For, Soleimani was the glue of the Resistance Axis that had fought ISIS successfully but in the process the Shia Crescent became the biggest beneficiary of the Iraqi intervention. The impulse — stemming from the Siege of Vienna — to keep the Middle East perennially off balance — is alive and kicking.

Source: The North Africa Journal January 18, 2020 23:37 UTC