Ranking The Military Powers In The Middle East

Turkish Land Forces Commander General Hulusi Aker and other officers gather around an army tank on the Turkish-Syrian border near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province October 6, 2014.

The Most Powerful Militaries In The Middle East (Ranked) -- Armin Rosen, Jeremy Bender and Amanda Macias, Business Insider

The balance of power in the Middle East is in disarray: A three-year civil war has torn apart Syria and opened up a vacuum for the rise of the Islamic State group; Sunni powers led by Saudi Arabia continue to face off against Shi'ite powers led by Iran; other countries are reeling from uprisings in the Arab Spring; and foreign powers are all taking sides.

Faced with this tense paradigm, every country in the region is building up its own military.

Indeed, four of the five fastest-growing defense markets in 2013 were in the Middle East, led by Oman — up 115% in a year — and Saudi Arabia — up 300% in a decade — according to IHS Jane's.

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My Comment: No surprises here.

Here Are Three Ways That The Islamic State In Iraq And the Violence In Gaza Could Endanger US National Security.

A fighter of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) holds an ISIL flag and a weapon on a street in the city of Mosul, June 23, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Stringer

Three Ways Middle East Fighting Threatens US National Security -- Anna Mulrine, CSM

As fighting in the Middle East continues this week – from Israel to Iraq – some senior US military officials are acknowledging that they are pessimistic about the prospect for peace in the region. “Is there going to be peace in the Middle East?” Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), asked himself aloud last week, before an audience of national security specialists. “Not in my lifetime. Not in my lifetime.”

Pentagon analysts are increasingly grappling with what this growing unrest means for US national security. Here are the top three ways the advance of the insurgent group the Islamic State in Iraq and violence in Gaza could endanger US national security.

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My Comment: In my book .... the Islamic State poses the greatest threat to national security. They want to wage perpetual war to achieve their caliphate, and they would not hesitate for a moment to launch terror attacks even against the West if it helps them to achieve their goal..

Why Are Arab Leaders Silent On The Ongoing Israel - Hamas War

Palestinians gather near the minaret of a mosque that police said was destroyed by an Israeli Air strike in Gaza City July 30, 2014. Credit: REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

Arab Leaders, Viewing Hamas as Worse Than Israel, Stay Silent -- New York Times

CAIRO — Battling Palestinian militants in Gaza two years ago, Israel found itself pressed from all sides by unfriendly Arab neighbors to end the fighting.

Not this time.

After the military ouster of the Islamist government in Cairo last year, Egypt has led a new coalition of Arab states — including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — that has effectively lined up with Israel in its fight against Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip. That, in turn, may have contributed to the failure of the antagonists to reach a negotiated cease-fire even after more than three weeks of bloodshed.

“The Arab states’ loathing and fear of political Islam is so strong that it outweighs their allergy to Benjamin Netanyahu,” the prime minister of Israel, said Aaron David Miller, a scholar at the Wilson Center in Washington and a former Middle East negotiator under several presidents.

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My Comment: It's true .... their silence is deafening .... and the Arab street .... even more so.