The Middle Eastern Paradox, by Robert Gore | STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC
"You don't fight for your country, you fight for your government." Robert Gore, The Golden Pinnacle
The following is an excerpt, the full article can be accessed by the link above.
The choice in the Middle East is simple and stark. The US government can continue trying to impose and maintain the governments there that it wants, opposed by local populations and by a majority of the US electorate. Or it can get out, and the Middle East will be carved up, often violently, into countries with governments that will be religiously oriented and in no sense secular, civil-liberties respecting democracies. Unfortunately, the choice is never presented in this way to the US public by those promoting continuing US interventionism. If it were, someone might ask: After 14 years of the former, don’t we have the latter? Our intervention has in no sense improved the Middle East, and has in many ways made it more hellish. Among the quite foreseeable consequences: blowback terrorism around the globe and a tidal wave of refugees from the most brutal hell holes “infiltrating” the US and Europe. More of the same will produce more of the same.
The following is an excerpt, the full article can be accessed by the link above.
The choice in the Middle East is simple and stark. The US government can continue trying to impose and maintain the governments there that it wants, opposed by local populations and by a majority of the US electorate. Or it can get out, and the Middle East will be carved up, often violently, into countries with governments that will be religiously oriented and in no sense secular, civil-liberties respecting democracies. Unfortunately, the choice is never presented in this way to the US public by those promoting continuing US interventionism. If it were, someone might ask: After 14 years of the former, don’t we have the latter? Our intervention has in no sense improved the Middle East, and has in many ways made it more hellish. Among the quite foreseeable consequences: blowback terrorism around the globe and a tidal wave of refugees from the most brutal hell holes “infiltrating” the US and Europe. More of the same will produce more of the same.
I hear what you are saying and perhaps it is time to let them tear each other apart and stay out of it. The questions that then arise are- will our politicians stand in the way of energy independence so we will have no need for them anymore? Will the middle-easterners then leave us alone or continue to hijack planes, blow up our buildings, kill thousands of innocents, attack our shipping on the seas, develop nuclear weapons and threaten western civilizations?
If we leave them to themselves, but are seen as capable and willing to commit massive retaliation so that we have a standoff resulting in lasting peace then that seems a great approach. Can they be trusted to stay in their own part of the world and be satisfied?
In recent history we have been seen as weak, paper tigers, unwilling to respond in kind, but still willing to be interventionists. No doubt from their perspective we are occupiers. Their ideology compels them to want to take over the world and spread their way by the sword.
It is a messy world... I do not have the answers, but it is true what we have been doing is not working.
Respectfully,
O.A.
This isn't a matter of allowing the irrationalists in the mid east to tear themselves apart -- they continuously do that routinely all on their own. Obviously they are not willing to leave other people alone, reaching far beyond the oil fields they seized, to Israel, Europe and the US.
Our presence in the mid east neither explains nor justifies their savage attacks on anyone. As long as governments continue to harbor or allow terrorists to operate within their borders we have every reason and right to suppress them. Alliances with proper governments where there are none is not a requirement.
The anarcho-libertarian-Ron Paul approach to foreign policy by abdicating the subject is required by their political philosophy which makes foreign policy impossible, a real embarrassment when faced with foreign problems that have to be explained away with rationalizations.
Even if we totally pulled out of the Middle East (which we cannot do without sacrificing Israel - which I wouldn't put it past this current admin from doing, by the way) that would not stop anything, in fact, it would likely cause it to increase. Europe is toast. They have allowed too many immigrants that are determined to "fundamentally transform" the continent. It is a matter of time, as the politicians will be unwilling to do what is necessary to prevent it, and they have removed from the people the ability for them to do so on their own. The same is possible in the US. Heck, look close to home in Dearborn - I understand that there are areas there that are "No Go" for police and effectively under Sharia law. Allowing such is the first domino to eventual destruction.
As for the ME, yes, much of what you say is correct. To keep the religious in check, it is nearly always necessary to have oppressive regimes - as the predominant religion itself advocates oppression and subjugation. Thus, the "do-gooders" wish to overthrow the secular oppressors but do not realize that the religious oppressors are the ones who will take over. The secular oppressors can be bought to remain, if not friendly then at least benign, the religious oppressors are out to destroy everything that is not to their desires, including us.
The answer is to create incentives to break the back of all the oil producers in the world via technology that reduces demand for oil and increases supply of oil equivalents and energy competitors.
The monetary cost of this will be high, but over the long term it will be lower than the path that has been followed, and sll points out many additional benefits in this article.
Power and politics prevent this from happening.