Middle East: a wall of difficulties- ▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/18/editorial-middle-east-wall-difficulties
There is a sea change in the relations between western and Middle Eastern countries in progress which is both welcome and unwelcome. It is welcome because it is the beginning of the end for the residual colonialism which still marks western attitudes toward the region. The governments and the peoples of the region are making their own decisions, good or bad, with less and less reference to what outsiders, including the United States, desire. It is unwelcome because the resulting conflicts and crises seem to precisely demand that outsiders offer help. Yet the record of the outsiders, not just the long historical record, but the more immediate one, has plainly been littered with dismal mistakes.