ISIS - The History Behind A Bully

I should just stop listening to good talk radio in the early morning hours when it comes to world events and how things came about.  If I'd just listen to CNN and FOX news my perspective on the crisis in the Middle East would be narrower and thereby much easier to identify the good, bad and ugly players involved, albeit with a dash of ignorance. 

But listening to commonwealth club guest speakers like Abbas Milani, dir. of Iranian Studies at Stanford University, makes it just about impossible to believe the major news organizations when they report 'breaking news' on middle eastern conflicts and western surprise at the atrocities going on.

Mr. Milani paints a political middle east landscape that has been influenced, trained and likely armed by western countries with interests in oil money, the destruction of Russian communism, and much more. He shares with listeners some of the history of Islam and how two different sects were used against one another by those with interests. It's a Fredo Moment that begs to be heard.

One thing Mr. Milani suggested that caught my ear was him saying that a separation of religion and politics in the middle east is needed in order to solve some of the differences. 

Abbas Malekzadeh Milani is an Iranian-American historian and author.  Milani is a visiting professor of Political Science and the director of the Iranian Studies program at Stanford University.

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