Good blog posts on the oil wars ... ignore the stocks

Nobody could have known that the dinner they were about to eat would one day change history. Some say it was goat. Others say it was lamb.

Either way, it was poisoned.

And the guest of honor was Mohammed, the controversial founder of Islam.

It was just one bite, that's all it took. He tasted the poison and immediately spit it out. But it was too late. He would soon die, sparking a bitter and deadly divide.

See, when Mohammed died nobody could agree on who should take over...

And they've been killing each other as a result ever since.

On the one side, you've got the Sunni Muslims. They're the ones that run Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and many of the other countries in the Middle East.

On the other, you've got the Shia Muslims. It's the Shia that run Iran. And now run Iraq, as well as Lebanon and Syria.

Think Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland... Serbs vs. Croats in Bosnia... or even the religious Thirty Years War that ripped apart Europe in the 16th century.

Only this Sunni-Shia split has built up pressure now for the last 1,354 years.

But it's only now that this pressure has found its ultimate release — with Iran driving a new Shia uprising smack dab in the middle of the most dangerous place on Earth — the oil-soaked Middle East.

Isn't the Middle East already a mess? Yes, it is.

What's different is that too many in the West... right up to the White House and the Pentagon... don't "get" just how deep this Islam divide could go or how far it could run.

Take a look at this map...

The Deadly Sunni-Shia Divide — 2010-2011

If it's black in this map, it's Shia ground. It's also mostly oil heartland
and some of the most strategic territory in the entire Middle East!

One terrorist with a grudge can do a lot of damage.

Iran, all by itself, could even be a deadly force.

But can you imagine what millions of Shiites with a 1,354-year old ax to grind could do?