Conversations with my barber

Once in a while I get my hair cut. I go to a well appointed barber's shop, manned usually by two Iraqi young men, possibly brothers, but I am not sure about that. They speak Arabic among themselves. I knew that they were from Iraq because I asked them some time ago. The television program screen is Al Jazeera, because it is free, a good reason I could appreciate. Today I engaged the young man cutting my hair in conversation. I asked him about the war in Iraq. He comes from Baghdad, which is not touched by the conflict. But he had some unexpected opinions about ISIS and the war. Isis get their weapons from Syria, from Russia, and their support from Turkey and, to my surprise, Israel. Wounded ISIS fighters get taken to large hospitals in Turkey and Israel. I just listened, didn't argue. He obviously gets his news from different sources from mine. I had no answer to some of the other things he said, the question about why the Americans bombed the north of the area occupied by ISIS, but not the south. Could it be that the oil fields and the dam are in the north? The Americans are behind the war by supporting Saudi Arabia, who support Al Qaeda, who support ISIS. There is probably some truth in this. American soldiers train ISIS fighter in Jordan. Perhaps you can't tell whose side the fighters are on. ISIS are hard to fight, they come at night and disappear during the day. It was all very interesting, an other spin on world events that we have no comprehension of in New Zealand. But the thing that stood out for me was that no matter who fought whom, what the causes were, who was right and who was wrong, you blame the Israelis and blame the Jews.