I know I am back on the Middle East….well it is more exciting than American politics……this coming from a guy with a degree in polisci……..what can you write about clowns….only that they are creepy and should be avoided.

There are many stories that are newsworthy but for some reason seldom make it to the talking heads……to be fair usually the talking heads are more focused on e-mails or whose butt is bigger or some random car chase in Po-Dunk California……you know the mundane crap that we all crave……..

So while you were otherwise distracted there is news in the War on Terror……..

Though there was no formal announcement of any policy change accompanying it, the latest Worldwide Threat Assessment, issued by the office of the Director of National Intelligence, conspicuously did not list either Iran or Hezbollah as terrorist threats to the United States.

The 2014 report declared both were direct threats to the US and its allies, and Iran had been given an entire segment of the terrorism section in the previous years.

This year, the assessment on Iran praised the nation for its attempts to “dampen sectarianism” and to “deescalate tensions with Saudi Arabia,” though they did warn that Iranian attempts to protect regional Shi’ites risked fueling a secfarian backlash against them.

An interesting turn in international relations……these two have been on the list since its inception…….but now we are cutting them some slack…….

There is another side to this coin……is it possible the US could be painted as protecting the Shi’a sect over the Sunni?  If so then this could be yet another of our trips that could provide recruitment opportunities for extremists.

I have been researching and analyzing the Middle East for decades and I cannot for the life of me understand what the US id doing…….since 2003 it has been one misstep after another……and now it looks more like some secret plan as opposed to accidents….

I understand that we are in negotiations with Iran and we are trying to prove to them that we can trust them and that they could benefit from a successful negotiations……but I think that this may be sending the wrong message within the extremist circles that could be disastrous….

Any ideas?