US foreign policy in the Middle East has been tilted towards Israel for 20+ years.
What was the first nation to recognize the newly established state of Israel?
US policy towards Israel was not always favorable. Look at how Eisenhower dealt with the French, British, and Israelis in 1956. (GET OUT of Sinai!! NOW!!)
And how long was Soviet foreign policy tilted towards Arab nationalists?
How long did France support Saddam Hussein?
How long have the French supported Arafat?
Do you think this support for aggressive nations constantly seeking to destroy Israel was of no factor to the current situation that exists today?
My point is simple. Why bother using our military to fight a war which only makes more suicide bombers attack us when our business is making daily inroads on the enemy, an invasion that was the one that Osama really feared, an invasion of our culture? We are winning this war, and we will inevitably win it, provided we keep the kids with guns (and planes) out of the Middle East.
Why limit ourselves to only one? That's a pretty inflexible strategy, IMO.
You seem to think that pressures of globalization will force this change within these mid-east all by itself. But that's just not the case when the social and political leadership has no interest in permitting it to happen, and when the demographic pressures are greater than the pace of change. After all, most of these regimes have succeeded in retarding progress for decades because they don't want to open up their government and finance systems to international scrutiny. Thus, only the speculative capital tends to be invested there and not the big money..
I opine that we just haven't got the kind of time you're suggesting if we're going to prevent millions of muslim children from becoming militant warriors. So I don't have a problem with expediting this transformation a bit via use of applied military force.
Friedman, in his discussion today, calls it "creating space" in which a more democratic society can be given some semblance of an opportunity to breath.
Iraq is that space.. And it will be far easier to create democracy out of a primarily secularized society that it will to accomplish the same thing in Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan.
Your only idea is to sit back and let the militants have the initiative. To not interfere, or intervene in the region..
A policy such as yours relegates us to doing even less that was done before 9/11, and the results will be even worse because we'll be seen as weak..
Hawk |
