How many foreign forays will it take before the United
States diplomatic corps starts to see the forest for the trees? We cannot
control the world, we cannot police the nations, and no nation, no matter how
armed, can put down or put an end to the political-ethnic-tribal turmoil
turning up the Middle East. Yet Republicans and Democrats in Washington today argue
that the United States has a vested interest in sending military personnel, not
just money, into Syria, where a self-inflicted quagmire of Shi’ites loyal to
blood-thirsty dictator Assad are pushing against Sunni rebels, along with
latent terrorist elements like Al-Qaeda and secular opposition fighters.
The arrogance, the flippant notion that any country, or any
community of cultures, can step into this cacophony just staggers the mind. No
collective of power or prestige can put down the massacres which rage in the name
of law, religious, cultural, and a worldview dictated by the rule of the
Almighty. The United States would do better by doing nothing, aside from “knocking
on wood” that the Syrian Civil War continues indefinitely, perhaps tiring out
the very virulent, violent elements which have been vying for power in the
region for decades.
The history behind the boundaries and broken promises in the
desert cannot be ignored. The tribes and tribulations of the Middle East all
started with World War I, where The Ottoman Empire, the “Sick Man of Europe”,
lost internal integrity as well as external legitimacy. King Mehmed VI Had joined forced with the Central
powers Germany and Austria-Hungary, and lost. Palestine and Jordan became
British mandates, while Lebanon and Syria fell under French purview. The British
had their hands full with a global empire spinning away, while the French also
witnesses their grand experiment to civilize the uncivilized fall apart.
The boundaries drawn up by the Allied Powers after Armistice
Day disregarded ethnic, religious, and ethno-religious elements. Political
identity based on the rule of law and civil conduct depends on a universal
acceptance of human rights. Differing religious factions face fundamental
divides, dramatic distinctions which can mean the difference between life and
death. A devout Muslim may well interpret his Holy Book to make Holy War on any
infidel who refuses to accept the tenets and the Teacher of his faith. Such is
the fraught basis for the fights that never end in the Arab world.
Desert Shield gave way to Desert Storm in 1991, when a communion
of communities took on the Hussein regime in Iraq, a country desperate for oil
and prestige following their disastrous turn against Iran during their
eight-year war. Oil-rich Kuwait served oil-dependent “rest of the world.”
Following the forced evacuation of Hussein’s forces, the United States restored
some of its lost military prestige from Vietnam. A 1992 recession hurt George
Herbert Walker Bush (plus a third-party run by H. Ross Perot), and his chances
at a second term.
Hussein still loomed large in the minds of the US
Government, enough that Congress passed a resolution in 1998 to remove the Baathist
dictator from power. Before that, Al-Qaeda was on the move, attacking the world
trade center in 1993, followed by attacks on US consulates in Africa and the explosion
on the USS Cole in 2000
Son George W. Bush was elected by electoral (not popular) vote in 2000, and
then came 9-11.
The conflicts in the Middle East and Central Asia were no
longer knocking on our allies’ doorsteps. Suicide bombers took advantage of a
central intelligence miasma in Washington and attacked the World Trade Center,
along with the Pentagon and an attempted hijacking and crashing into the White
House. Bush’s response instigated the invasion of Afghanistan, the removal of
the Taliban, and the resumption of the search for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin
Laden.
What else to do? Resume the upsets over the Hussein regime,
over which the Clinton Administration had been dropping bombs weekly for years.
Separate intelligence reports, before and after invasion, confirmed that
Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Skeptics during the Bush
Administration conceded that Hussein was such a weapon himself. Nine plus years
in Iraq, and what do we have? More trouble. While Bush had intimidate Arab
dictators to play nice, respect Israel, and diminish Al-Qaeda terrorists and
Muslim extremists, the same repressive policies, mixed with the technological
innovations, created the sub-cultures of dissent which spread from word of
mouth to biting with megabytes, as Internet, Facebook, My Space became the new
public square of dissent in the Middle East.
Tunisia toppled, followed by leaders in Egypt, Yemen, and
then Libya. Yet one set of bad guys who feared Al-Qaeda have been replaced by
the latent terrors and extremists so hunted and despised by the United States. The
Arab Spring has sprung, and governments have been falling all over the Arab
World, yet the pretended peaceful democratic transitions have erupted into
chaotic transformations of tyranny, where terrorists are taking charge while
secular, principled interests remain the endangered minority. With so many
unintended consequences to democratic intentions, the United States would do
best to stay out of Syria and the Middle East.
No comments:
Post a Comment