Quote Originally Posted by Fuchs View Post
Thanks, Davidbfpo.

I believe the today really relevant conflicts with Arabs began in 1973 when the USA attempted to save Israel. It had a rather low profile till then. I believe that older conflicts are quite irrelevant and were not of greater scope than conflicts with Europeans (which remained much less troublesome than 9/11 except of course the Algerian war of independence).

The U.S. conflict with Persians might date back due to the support (or establishment?) of the Shah regime, but concerning the Arabs I'd say 25 years = since 1973.
Fuchs,

During my year in Iraq I was amazed to find that people really and truly cared about Sunni-Shia split in 632 and what the Ottoman Turks did in Iraq 1831.

Herr Uhrlau of the BND has an interesting take on things...

Uhrlau: We mustn't fool ourselves. From the standpoint of the sponsors of terrorism and their accomplices, we belong to the "crusaders." German soldiers are deployed in Afghanistan, and the German navy is patrolling the waters off the Horn of Africa and in the Mediterranean off the Lebanese coast. From the perspective of the terrorists, we have adopted a clear position in this conflict -- they see us as being on the side of the attackers.
Do you see Otto von Bismarck's alliance with the Ottoman Turks as a positive and how does that square with the EU's current stance on the accession of Turkey?

Regards,

Steve