The incredible mess in the Middle East is IN PART the result of US meddling over decades (this author says 20 years, but its much longer than that). When what youve been doing isnt working, the realistic thing is to rethink and change course. So disengage... end support for EVERYONE in the region.Yes, Israel, too, which has gone on a madness streak of right-wing militarism. Egypt, certainly...where Sisi is merely the new Mubarak, a tin-horn dictator who is worsening internal rifts in his country and making the outlook grim for most Egyptians. Syra, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen... just back away from it all. Provide humanitarian relief where and when needed (and when possible)...but let the Middle Easterners sort this out. None of these countries is a real strategic threat... were producing more hydrocarbons in the US and using less. And there are multiple other, more stable places in the world from which to source energy import needs. Disengagement would soon reduce any direct and mortal threat of attacks on American targets (at home and abroad) from the regions extremists. Theyre extremists in part because we made them extremists via our policies, pursued for the better part of a century. Some allies will call it abandonment, and may be less willing to provide intelligence to the US - but if we face a reduced threat we need less intelligence. Might Russia or China step in to fill the void? Maybe, probably...let them at it. They wont find it any easier than we have to keep lids on all the simmering rivalries. They wont stay for long, in part because, as we gradually wind down the petroleum century, theyll soon figure out the efforts just not worth the cost. Disengagement, given the mess that exists in the region, will leave it a mess for some time, but its going to be the same mess, or worse, if we keep doing what weve been doing. As this article points out... The United States spent the better part of a decade chasing that elusive Grail, and the end result was precisely the sort of chaos and sectarian rivalry that has produced this latest crisis. We may be able to do some limited good for the endangered minorities, but above all, lets do no further harm: not to the region, and not to ourselves.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 15:21:16 +0000
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