Tuesday, January 07, 2003

[Colin Glassey] The United States Policy in the Middle East Historian Barry Rubin in an essay for History New Network argues that the United States policy for the last 50 year has not been anti-Arab by any reasonable standard. It is a good essay and worth the read. Bottom line: the United States has helped Arabs and Moslems in general over the last 50 years. Only the radical Islamists can argue that we have opposed them, but they are not by any means the only Arabs or Moslems in the Middle East. Here are some things we could have done but didn't: We could have taken over the Kuwait oil fields for our own in 1991. Instead we gave them back to the Kuwaiti government. We could have let Israel, France, and England take over the Suez Canal in 1956. Instead we forced them to give back the canal to Nassar's government. We could have intervened militarily to support the Shah of Iran in 1978. Instead we prevented the Shah from using our military equipment against the revolutionaries. We could have intervened militarily in the Lebenon civil war, the Yeman civil war, the Baath revolution in Iraq, the Baath revolution in Syria, etc. Instead we let these countries try to sort out their own affairs. 11:47:30 AM

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