Don't Let The Door Close

Newspapers across the country and the world are laden with the obvious, America’s approach to the Muslim world, especially those lands dominated by Arabs, has been an abysmal failure. By not at least evaluating the basic complaints of the Muslims of the Middle East to determine what if anything might be done to ease the situation; by losing our focus in Afghanistan in making war on al Qaeda, destroying the Taliban, and in turning our attention away from the government in Kabul; and by failing to demonstrate leadership in pushing towards peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis, we have effectively undermined our foreign relations everywhere.

While there can be no doubt that support of tyrannical regimes squatting on huge oil reserves has permitted the flow of petroleum products into the U.S. for the past half a century, but at what cost?

The Saudi royals, our great friends, support the teaching of hatred of the West and Israel; our installation and support of the Shah continues to poison our relations with Iran; and, of course, our on again off again relations with Saddam led ultimately to the greatest foreign policy blunder in all of our history.

As we drift, the initiative in Afghanistan appears to be swinging back to the Taliban. Our espousal of democracy in the Palestinian region led to the freely elected leadership of Hamas. Our reaction led to the withholding American aid and to not pushing the Israelis to return earned monies to the Palestinians and this has created the worst crisis in that area since the beginning of the Iraq War. And of course our unwarranted preemption in Iraq over weapons of mass destruction that weren’t there has led to the destruction of the Bush presidency and the weakening of the nation.

Even as we encouraged the Israelis in their self interest withdrawal from Gaza, we support them in long term expansion on the West Bank. While we pride ourselves in having negotiated with Israel to return some huge percentage of the occupied territory to the Palestinians, we support them in proposing to maintain huge settlements in conquered land. And we wonder how Arafat and now Hamas could refuse such a generous offer? International law and the U.N., which we support by daily invective and with an ambassador who is an avowed enemy of the institution and not confirmed by the Senate, consider the occupation of these territories to be illegal. One must ask how Palestinian leaders could be expected to negotiate away this acreage and still maintain the support of their citizens.

We are morally bound to support Israel to the extent of the territories in its hands prior to the attacks by the Arab states. Any more than that and we condemn Israelis and Palestinians to endless warfare, deprivation, and suffering. Many Israelis know this and with leadership from the U.S. appear ready to step back from the long ago heady days of conquest and optimism. But President Bush must lead toward a goal of dismantlement of even the closest in settlements. Perhaps with American leadership in that direction partial Israeli control of Jerusalem would be possible; trying to achieve goals more aggressive than this will lead only to endless fighting.

Since 1967, we have supported the Israelis in a policy that even they are beginning to perceive as far too grand. But even as such aggressive fighters as Ariel Sharon see the long term folly of the old ways, America does little to ease the path.

Our problems across the Muslim world are great. It’s time to act, Mr. President.

Blog on!

Wild Bill