Tony Petersen
While the media badger candidates with questions on contraception, birth control and the harsh opinions of a talk-radio provocateur, the Middle East is looking like it will be the most important issue of the next presidential term of whoever is elected.
Iran continues to be a thorn in the side of the United States. Though American intelligence agencies have found no evidence that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapon capabilities, this intelligence is belied by the actions of the Israeli and American governments. The assassinations of Iranian scientists connected to Iran’s nuclear facilities are widely suspected to have been carried out by Mossad, Israel’s equivalent of the CIA.
And President Barack Obama refuses to take the option of a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities off the table.
“I do not have a policy of containment,” Obama said over the weekend in an address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. And as I’ve made clear time and again during the course of my presidency, I will not hesitate to use force when it is necessary to defend the United States and its interests.”
It is not yet known what type of government will emerge in both Libya and Egypt, but if the countries acquiesce to calls for democracy, it seems likely that they will become Islamic republics.
Indeed, Washington policymakers are cozying up to the idea. Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, after visiting Egypt, even praised the Muslim Brotherhood.
“I was very apprehensive when I heard the election results,” Graham said. “But after visiting and talking with the Muslim Brotherhood I am hopeful that … we can have a relationship with Egypt where the Muslim Brotherhood is a strong political voice.”
This is the same Muslim Brotherhood that has threatened, as late as mid-February, to review the Camp David accords, which established peaceful relations between Egypt and Israel.
The situation in Syria continues to escalate. President Bashar al-Assad has shown himself to be a barbarous dictator. According to the United Nations, his efforts to quell the massive protests taking place in the country have thus far led to at least 7,500 deaths.
Aside from the humanitarian carnage, Syria is the ally of Iran, the sworn enemy of the United States and Israel, and supports the terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
For all of these reasons, McCain has called for an invasion of Syria.
“The United States should lead an international effort to protect key population centers in Syria, especially in the north, through airstrikes on Assad’s forces,” McCain said on the Senate floor on Monday.
Yet, should the United States invade Syria and topple the Assad regime, the type of government that emerged could not be guaranteed. It is not known whether American intervention would nudge Syria in the West’s direction. Indeed, wherever some form of voting has been introduced in the Middle East, be it in Iran, Iraq, Egypt or Palestine, Islamic parties, not liberal parties, have been the beneficiaries.
The stakes are high. Iran is slowly achieving hegemony over the region, with considerable influence in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. They might be attempting to make nuclear weapons, but what matters more is the perception that they are.
Israel is feeling threatened at all sides. Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are all calling for a more belligerent policy toward Iran. Radical Islamist groups are gaining all around the region, to the detriment of American interests.
American power is waning. Troops are stretched thin, the people are war weary and the country cannot finance another war.
But please, Mr. Candidate, tell us more of your thoughts on sex.
Tony Petersen is the opinion editor of The Collegian. Follow him on Twitter @tonypetersen4.
Arafat • Mar 9, 2012 at 4:00 pm
Maybe we should start the following movement to help educate people on the matter?
Let’s organize an annual “Arab Apartheid Week,” which would highlight the decrepit state of human and political rights throughout the Arab world.
There is a solid case to be made that the Arab states remain the last great outpost of despotism and tyranny on earth, and people need to be reminded as much. Indeed, the Arab world today is a living encyclopedia of outmoded forms of government, from sultanates such as Oman and emirates such as Qatar, to thuggish dictatorships such as Syria and dynastic monarchies along the lines of Jordan. It may be a political scientist’s dream, but it is a nightmare for the hundreds of millions of Arabs chafing under oppression and tyranny.
Basic and fundamental freedoms such as personal autonomy and individual rights are routinely trampled upon, and ethnic and religious minority groups suffer extreme discrimination and
intolerance. Just ask Coptic Christians in Egypt, Baha’is in Iran or Shi’ites in Saudi Arabia for starters.
This was borne out most recently by a report issued by Freedom House, the independent Washington-based group that advocates for freedom worldwide. Its annual survey, “Freedom in the World 2010,” would make for eye-opening reading for all those who cry “apartheid” whenever they see a flag with a Star of David.
Consider the following findings:
Of the 18 countries in the Middle East that Freedom House surveyed, only one is considered to be “free.”
And just who might that be? Yep, you guessed it: Israel.
Not a single Arab country ”“ not one! ”“ did Freedom House consider “free.” Three Arab states ”“ Morocco, Lebanon and Kuwait ”“ were labeled “partly free,” while 13 other Arab states as well as Iran merited the dubious distinction of being branded as “not free.”
In effect, then, this means that of the approximately 370 million human beings currently residing in the Middle East, only 2 percent enjoy true freedom ”“ namely those who live in the Jewish state.
So much for “Israeli apartheid.”
NOT SURPRISINGLY, in a press release announcing the report’s publication, Freedom House concluded that “the Middle East remained the most repressive region in the world.” It is this message that Israel and its supporters need to begin highlighting. By casting a spotlight on the subjugation, oppression and tyranny that typify nearly the entire Arab world, we can open some eyes out there and educate the Western public as to who really shares their democratic values.
As Prof. Bernard Lewis has written, the Arab states are little more than “a string of shabby tyrannies, ranging from traditional autocracies to new-style dictatorships, modern only in their apparatus of repression and indoctrination.”
An annual Arab Apartheid Week, held on campuses and at community centers, could be an effective vehicle for driving home this fundamental truth.
Doing so will reframe the debate. More importantly, it will help Westerners to finally begin recognizing the Arab regimes for what they are: a dangerous mix of despotism and dictatorship.
SpectacleStudy • Mar 7, 2012 at 10:14 pm
“The United States should lead an international effort to protect key population centers in Syria, especially in the north, through airstrikes on Assad’s forces,” McCain said
Yes. Because “Shock And Awe” went so well the last time we chose to “liberate” people. This is a catastrophe waiting to happen. If we invaded Syria the same insurgency of Iraq and Afghanistan would persist. Remnant government forces would fade into the civilian population requiring U.S. ground force commitment. This would lead to the quagmire that is the counter-insurgency strategy at present.