THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 172, August 15, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE MIDDLE EAST MAZE
By Alan Caruba
THE CENTRAL PROBLEM OF NEAREAST ASIA & ARAB-RULED NORTH AFRICA: ISLAM & ITS RESISTANCE TO
CHANGE -- WHY THERE CAN BE NO REAL PEACE IN THE ISLAMIC MIDDLE EAST -- WHY THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT WILL
CONTINUE -- WHY EFFORTS OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO "RE-SET" U.S. RELATIONS WITH THE MIDDLE EAST WILL
NOT SUCCEED -- A BROAD SPECTRUM OF ARAB FAILURE OR UNDERPERFORMANCE IN INVESTMENT, PRODUCTIVITY,
TRADE, EDUCATION, SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, & CULTURE -- AUTHORITARIAN & TYRANNICAL POLITICAL REGIMES IN MOST
MUSLIM COUNTRIES -- ISLAM'S DREAMS OF A GLOBAL ISLAMIC CALIPHATE, A SINGLE WORLDWIDE ISLAMIC RELIGION, &
THE BRUTAL JUSTICE OF SHARIA LAW
FULL STORY:
Referring to a 1990 report in The Economist, the editors recently said:
“To revisit the Arab world two decades later is to find
that, in many ways, history continues to pass the
Arabs by. Freedom? The Arabs are ruled now, as they
were then, by a cartel of authoritarian regimes practiced
in the arts of oppression.”
The central problem affecting the Middle East and much of northern Africa where Arabs rule is Islam. The Islam of the
Middle East is utterly resistant to change. Not all of the world’s billion-plus Muslims practice Islam with the same
intensity as many Arabs do (and we should note, as Iran’s Persians have pursued since their revolution in 1979.)
Trying to understand Arabs is like trying to find one’s way out of one of those cornfield mazes where most turns lead
to a dead end. In a recent analysis by Herb Keinon in the Jerusalem Post, the lament was familiar. It referred to
a meeting in Khartoum after the loss of the 1967 war on Israel, a meeting in which the participants agreed to the “Three
No's” -- no to peace with Israel, no to recognition of Israel, and no to negotiations with Israel.
Reflecting the observations of The Economist, Keinon wrote that Syria still regards its loss of the Golan Heights
and its demand for its return as “non-negotiable.” Add to that, a meeting of Fatah rejected Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu’s call for a Palestinian recognition of Israel. This reflects the position of Hamas as well. And, finally, at a
recent event at the U.S. State Department, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said that Israel could
forget about any confidence-building measures from that nation.
In starkest terms, the Obama administration efforts to “re-set” its relations with the Middle East have hit the same brick
wall that all previous administrations encountered. You cannot negotiate with people who have no intention to
negotiate. The Israelis cannot find a partner for negotiations with the Palestinians because Fatah and Hamas would far
prefer to kill one another than sit down together.
The Economist’s 14-page report, titled “Waking from its Sleep,” correctly noted that there is no unanimity
among the various Arab nations, and not all Arabs are on the same page in much the same fashion as being “European”
means different things to those identified as such. Nor are most of the world’s Muslims Arabs. Indeed, other than Israel,
the only thing the Middle East’s Arabs agree upon is the common danger posed by Iran, a Muslim, but Persian nation.
On the political front, the Arab League “does little more than organize bad-tempered summits” and works “to fend off
Western criticism of human-rights abuses by its members and (to) denounce Israel.”
It is a curious irony of history that neither the ancient Romans nor the modern American people ever wanted to create an
empire, but both ended up in charge of one in an effort to fend off the enemies of peace. In the case of Rome, its allies
asked for Roman protection and, in the case of America, following World War II, it emerged as the only superpower
capable of fending off the threat of the Soviet Union and capable of interceding to stop conflicts.
America’s protection is understood to be the only reliable one worldwide and accounts for the many bases it maintains
on the invitation of its many allies. Following World War II, America determined to stay in Europe to avoid a repeat of
World War I and to fend off Soviet aggression. It helped found both the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization.
There is a further irony in the fact that the Arab nations in the Middle East are all fervently praying that Israel destroys
the Iranian nuclear facilities in the same way it previously did in Iraq and, more recently, in Syria.
Is change coming to the Middle East? Yes, but it is likely to be very ugly and violent. Most of the "sovereign" states
of the region are the product of British and French colonization following World War I, the colonization that cobbled
together new socalled “nations” such as Iraq and Jordan, the British and French doing so out of a desire to extend
their own empires of trade.
As for Afghanistan, that ancient “nation” has been little more than warring tribes for millennia. Invaders have never had
any success there, though the goal of destroying Al-Qa'ida and the Taliban is a sensible, necessary one.
America’s intervention, particularly after 9/11, was the act of an empire seeking to impose some measure of peace in the
face of the rise of Al-Qa'ida and the endless wars by Saddam Hussein on his neighbors, Iran and Kuwait. Peace is the
last thing that is likely to break out in the Middle East, whose vast reserves of oil require that the West continue to
intervene to protect its dependence on it.
“It is not difficult,” noted The Economist, “to paint a bleak picture of Arab failure, based on a broad spectrum of
underperformance in investment, productivity, trade, education, social development, and even culture.” Thanks to Islam,
it remains rooted in the Seventh Century sensibilities of the marauding bands of Arabian tribes led by Mohammed that
spread the “faith.” To this day, hardcore Muslims believe that the entire world must bend to Islam’s dreams of a
caliphate, a single religion, and the brutal justice of Sharia law.
Thus, while Americans believe that more democracy is the answer to the problems of the region, what “democracy” that
actually exists there is a sham. Despite the presence of parliaments, all real power resides with the absolute monarchies,
oligarchies and autocracies -- and the parliaments are rubber stamps for the despots, tyrants, and dictatorships of
varying descriptions.
One factor will have a significant role in the Mideast’s future, and that is population. “By next year the region’s
population will have doubled over 30 years from fewer than 180 million people to some 360 million.” The majority of
Arabs are under 25 years old. That is a recipe for revolution and war.
What too many in the West desire is not attainable. The West wants the region to adopt a measure of justice and
freedom that took hundreds of years to develop in its own area of the world. As a huge population of young Arabs
seeks some measure of real freedom, they will likely turn to revolution and rebellion to achieve it. Or they may unite
through sheer numbers to impose Sharia law on the West in a misguided attempt to determine their own fate. This
factor is already transforming Europe with its growing Muslim population.
If there is one thing common to the Mideast, it is their infinite capacity to blame everyone other than themselves for
their own wretched state of oppression and lack of progress.
Meanwhile, the United States of America is desperately trying to restructure its own financial mess, thanks to
profligate spending and borrowing. Much of the West and the prosperity of trading partners such as China and
Europe depend on this. Failure could plunge the world into chaos.
Unfortunately, the U.S.A. has chosen to turn power over to the first Marxist President ever elected and to a Congress
dominated by a Democratic Party whose socialist inclinations threaten to bankrupt the nation with insane taxation of
all energy use and a huge bureaucratic program to nationalize its healthcare system.
None of this bodes well for the future, and the likelihood of wars, large and small, in the Middle East, spreading out to
engulf the rest of the world remains a nightmare scenario.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
The Middle East, the Arabs, & their Neighbors
The Middle East & the Israeli-Arab Conflict
The Middle East & the Problem of Iraq
The Middle East & the Problem of Rogue States:
Iraq as a Case History
The Middle East & the Problem of Syria
The Middle East & the Problem of Iran
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. A business and science writer, he is the
Founder of The National Anxiety Center.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity