A Pedant in the Levant

As the uneasy stirrings of Afro-Asian self-determination cast a harsh glare on the turgid cataract of independence and democracy, per se, as they sink their roots ever deeper into the rich brown soil of the ancient Fertile Crescent, that strife-ridden slice of the mordacious Middle East which includes the Bedouins of Syria, the Riffs of Jordan, the fiercely patriotic people of brave little Israel, the Nomads of the Saudi-Arabian wastelands, the oil-rich sheiks of Kuwait and the curvaceous cuties of the Cairo Casbah, not to mention the nubile Nubians of the nether Nile, the nemesis of Nasser nears the nadir of its nebulous naughtiness, forcing the great powers to consider, with great searching of souls and scratching of navels, the threat, the portentous horror, indeed, the phantasmagorical folly of appeasement, of a Munich, if you please, in the face of great decisions which may determine the future of the entire Arabian peninsula, perhaps of the whole Western World, centering in arid Iraq, cradle of civilization, womb of nationalism, cocoon of Communism's conspiratorial caprices, where the stupendous clash of incompatible ideologies generates a maelstrom of incredible tautological complexity which, if only time would allow, I would be delighted to analyze down to the most delicate detail, but with the grader's forbearance I shall now go on to the next question.