Tonight on The Independents: Friends, Enemies, and Chaos in the Middle East

Do you know how certain people on the Internet are fond of formulations like "Everything you need to know about ____________"? It is of course an asinine statement, since it is impossible for any single human to judge any other human's precise need for knowledge, let alone presume to have amassed the precise quality and mix of the stuff. Nitpicky throat-clearing aside, if you have an interest in and worry about the tumult in the Middle East and North Africa, and you don't consider yourself an expert, then chances are very good that you will find something useful in tonight's theme episode of The Independents (Fox Business Network, 9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT, with re-airs three and five hours later).

"Friends, Enemies and Chaos" begins with a series of backgrounders from Wall Street Journal multimedia explainer Jason Bellini, Fox News Middle Eastern specialist Lisa Daftari, and Michael Weiss of The Interpreter. Who are the teams? From where did those ISIS scaries emerge and what do they want? What is the nature and import of the Sunni/Shia schism? You'll likely know more going out than you did going in.

As for what, if anything, the United States should do about the chaos, both short term and long term, we tease out some scenarios with The Blaze national security chief (and former CIA employee) Buck Sexton, KABC radio host (and multiple-theater combat veteran) Bryan Suits, former Reagan-administration deputy defense secretary K.T. McFarland, and Heritage Foundation Director of National Security Policy Steven Bucci. And because this is The Independents, there will be a mid-show game you can compete along with at home, plus a dash of at least some long-term optimism, in a discussion about whatever the hell happened to the Arab Spring.

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