An informative article on the situation in the Middle East and a prediction on the future

All I have to say is that I'm glad that we live on the other side of the world from this cluster.  

Via The American Interest:  What the MSM is failing to tell you.  A taste, but follow the link and read it all:

So what next, you may ask. Before long, Hizballah and ISIS will become each other’s main target, which does not necessarily mean they will lack venom enough left over to again attack Israel and Saudi Arabia. Hizballah will have a powerful state backer, but ISIS will not, suggesting that the former will prevail. But uncertainty and lots of blood yet to be spilled on all sides stand between the present and that outcome. Saudi Arabia will be caught in the middle of this mayhem, opposed to both parties but helpless to stop the fight. Israel will be caught on the periphery, so to speak, the enemy of both antagonists and so desirous of the destruction of both. But Israel has no political entrée or leverage with either side to turn its military power into political achievements. Israel and Saudi Arabia will be in a sense objective allies, bound together by what they do notwant, but both the nature of the Saudi state and plenty of political baggage besides will make active collaboration between the two parties difficult—perhaps a bit easier if Jordan and the UAE quietly mediate whatever arrangements become necessary. But any such arrangements will still be sharply limited; there is little either party can do, separately or together, to stop the coming carnage that, before it’s done, may well sweep more Arab Sunni states into the dustbin of history.

And the United States? It’s too late. Having abdicated responsibility to suppress such a major regional security competition, there is no way now to get back to relative stability. Not that it would have been easy or cheap for the Obama Administration to do its duty effectively, and not that its predecessor did not make the situation worse; but abdication is now yielding bad and much more expensive options, whether of passivity or activity, in all directions. At least for the duration of the Obama Administration, respect for American power and trust in American judgment are all but gone. We have made ourselves, in effect, spectators; we are not likely, however, to enjoy the show.