Originally published in the Herald of Randoph
The popular uprisings and protests in the Middle East that began in December 2010 and America’s reactions to them have left many wondering precisely what our policy is in that region and what motivates it.
Of course, years of established policy have left to the Obama administration only bad options today. There really is nothing they can do that is both practical in the sense that it forwards our national interests and is, at the same time, consistent with what we claim to be our basic national principles.
Over the years, our policy has been driven neither by pure pragmatism, nor by pure ideology. It has been an admixture of the two and that dichotomy has not been to our advantage. In fact, we are viewed in the region as hypocritical, seen, for example, in our overthrow of the democratically elected Mossadegh regime in Iran in 1953.
What were the factors that drove our Middle East policies after the Second World War? First, we were either dismally or willfully ignorant of realities in Islam. We seldom let facts on the ground get in the way of or influence our chosen policies.
During Cold war, we felt it necessary to keep as many nations as possible on our side and aligned against the Soviet Union. Thus, even in the aftermath of years of Imperialism in the region, we found it pragmatically necessary to make whatever accommodations were necessary to maintain the support of the autocratic, repressive and corrupt Middle East regimes that had replaced the imperialists. Democracy, what’s that?
The creation of a democratic, Zionist Israel and our decision to support literally whatever they felt they needed to do in support of their national goals, left us, ultimately, in the same ambivalent boat of pragmatism vs. idealism. In the face of UN vetoes, and international rulings on, for example, the illegality of the ongoing west Bank settlement program, America edges ever further into the arena of hypocrisy.
Additionally, we have stationed our foreign American troops on Islam’s holiest ground and fought wars that have killed Muslim civilians – very much taboo under the Koran. With all of our strident talk about bringing Democracy to Islam whether they want it, need it or not, we have turned into the twenty-first Century Crusaders. That really means something in Islam. Even though the first Crusades were in the 11-12th Centuries, no one in Islam forgets them!
We have seen three wars fought between Arabs and Israelis. The Palestinians have endless shelled Israel and Israel has invaded Lebanon and Gaza to suppress them.
The very nature of the Muslim Middle East with its Sunni-Shia and Arab-Persian splits, Its multiple ethnic rivalries, tribalism, corruption, bellicosity and political instabilities, introduces realities which we cannot control and poorly understand. As a nation, we are sadly lacking in our grasp of the complexities that dominate the Middle East, making the creation of rational foreign policy illusive at best. In addition, we have the constant negative and confusing intrusion of internal American politics into the formation of foreign policy.
Add oil into this volatile mixture in a time of rising international demand and shrinking resources, and any observer will begin to see the problem for U.S. policy makers.
Rami Khouri, an Arab-American educator and commentator, recently wrote perceptively and accurately that “……..Washington has become a marginal player in much of the Middle East, largely as a consequence of its own incompetence, inconsistency, bias and weakness ….”
Our past foreign policy inconsistencies, our decline of influence in the Middle East and our ongoing activities have put us in the position of alienating someone, somewhere, every time we make a policy decision.
Informal polling shows about half the Arab “street” in favor of Western involvement with the Libyan rebels, while the other half are suspicious of western intentions. Our “allies” in the region like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen and the Gulf states, along with those whom we do not support like Syria and Iran, are very nervous about our involvement in Libya, fearing it might catalyze their own peoples. Ongoing tendencies toward self-determination even have the Chinese worried.
The larger question here is what the result of these rebellions will be. Will they spread further to places like Saudi Arabia where we have far more at stake? How will we react to that? Then, what will evolve in Tunis, Egypt and Libya? Will we see stability? Will the outcomes be in our favor?
The genie is out of the bottle and we are without significant influence!
