I think that the big problem with the Middle East is that western nations and the United Nations have double standards which greatly favour some countries, while acting to the detriment of others.

One good example is our view of democracy in the region. We tell Iran to become more democratic and to reform its electoral process, while we condone Saudi Arabia's autocratic regime. Most people don't know that women were not allowed to vote in Saudi Arabia in the first local election ever held (that's right, the first ever). Most likely they won't be allowed to vote in 2011 for the next election, just as they are not allowed to drive a car, or go out in public without a male relative or husband to accompany them. Yet our governments point the finger at Iran as the bad guy in the Middle East.

Another good example is nuclear proliferation. Our governments point fingers at Iran and North Korea, yet Israel is allowed to have nuclear weapons as a "deterrent". Israel has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, and they refuse to allow anyone to inspect their nuclear facilities. That's right, nobody can go into Israel and say "Are you making plutonium?" Yet we want other countries to abandon nuclear programs. We tell them "don't make weapons of mass destruction" even though our countries have the biggest and most deadly arsenals of weapons of mass destruction in history. That's right, nobody has WMDs than the US.

Another interesting one is military aid. Currently Israel gets US $3 billion per year in military aid from the American government. All that money goes to a country that has fighter jets, tanks, battle ships, nuclear weapons, etc. Israel has the 4th largest military in the world. In contrast Palestinians get no military aid. They have sling shots and stones, and when militants make poorly designed rockets everybody calls them terrorists. Imagine having a sling shot and having to fight the 4th largest army in the world, an army that gets billions in military aid every year?

The truth is that the Middle East will be a mess as long as western superpowers see political, economic and military benefits there. We see oil in Saudi Arabia, and a strategic location for military dominance in Israel. So our governments turn a blind eye to all the worngdoings in those places. Our enemies are those governments that act for their own self-interest rather than the political and economic interests of western capitalism. If Iran was a lackey of western superpowers, they would be allowed to have nuclear weapons just like Israel, Pakistan and India are. Then Iran would be called a "democracy" and not a "threat".