The idea that the United States take a back seat to affairs in the Middle East has saber-rattlers such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., at their wit’s end.
For these hawks, it’s more boots on the ground that ensures peace.
For the last 14 years the United States has had a significant role in trying to convert civilian uprisings into fledging democracies across the Middle East.
Nowhere, has democracy truly taken root, with elections in Iraq, Libya and Egypt being democratic in name only.
A good many of our young families today first became aware of the troubles in the Mideast in 2003 when President George W. Bush waged war in Iraq. We naïvely believed its malevolent dictator Saddam Hussein was the root of the problem and that once removed, the Iraqis would be eager to sign on to a democratically elected government.
Americans, hopefully more then than now, also had an outsized ego that somehow authorized us to believe we — and our system of government — were the envy of the world.
We also were led to believe Hussein had “weapons of mass destruction” targeted at our shores and that for our own safety we needed to act posthaste.
So we invaded, and have ever since learned more about the differences between Islamic sects than we ever wanted to know.
Our reliance on oil from the Gulf Arab states also helped sway our decision to intervene. Today, the United States is on its way to overtaking Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest producer of crude oil, and while that doesn’t mean we won’t work to keep it as an ally, it does mean the more we wean ourselves from foreign oil, the less tethered is our foreign policy to our energy needs.
More and more, Saudi Arabia and the Middle East are becoming less and less attractive places to do business. Its politics and economics are dysfunctional; its human rights deplorable; its unemployment astronomical; and its overall outlook bleak.
THIS IS NOT to say we should close the door on the Mideast, but rather to return to more diplomatic tactics.
Diplomacy can be every bit of a threat as armies. The unique relationship between the United States and Israel, though currently strained, tells its adversaries we have their back. Iran is fully aware any military action against Israel will immediately retrigger the hated sanctions only recently eased in the nuclear deal.
No place is in more need of increased diplomatic efforts than Syria.
If President Bashar al-Assad — a ruthless dictator to be sure — were to be deposed today, radical Islamists would fill the vacuum much the same as has happened elsewhere in recent years.
The only way to keep this tragic story from repeating itself is if the parties involved, including Russia, the United States and Iran, negotiate some sort of peace plan and form of government acceptable to the Syrian people.
Strengthening diplomacy, not military intervention, is how the United States can help make the world a better place.
— Susan Lynn
