Bush’s Middle East Policy

When you read this post’s title you probably expect to read a critique of an integrated set of US Government policies that coherently focus our nation’s efforts towards the Middle East.  You probably expect to read an assessment of our stated goals and our actual achievements.  Your expectations are reasonable but you will not read any of that because the Bush Administration has never had a Middle East Policy. 

Well maybe that is an over statement.  George W Bush’s policy seems to have been what ever Dick Cheney wanted or what ever AIPAC asked or what ever God told George to do.  That is about the same as saying there is no policy.

1. Dick Cheney never met a barrel of oil he did not like.  In his barely disguised attempt to rob Iraq of its oil, he has destabilized the greater Middle East and set the stage for more than doubling the price of a barrel of oil.  How could anything Dick said lead to a sensible policy or one that was congruent with other policies?

2. AIPAC is myopic on Israel and what it narrowly sees as “best” for Israel’s self interest.  Maybe that is proper for AIPAC but it is no basis to build US foreign policy.  US foreign policy is about US national interests, not Israel’s.  US policy needs to recognize and respect the interests of all Middle East countries, not just Israel. 

3. The God that George W Bush speaks to has already been discredited several times.  He told George to deny women the right to their own reproductive health but it was ok for his Government to forget about the newborn.  He told George that it was ok to send American soldiers into another Country and kill their citizens even though those citizens had done nothing to provoke the attack.  He told George it was ok to champion faith based values and to treat gays and lesbians as less than human.

With this type of input it is fair to say that for 8 years the US has been without a Middle East policy and today we have the fruits to show it.  Israel and the Palestinians are still fighting and treating each other with contempt.  Iraq is simply a mess with no short term hope of a peaceful solution.  Lebanon is falling apart.  Iran is expanding their influence without regard to US or UN calls for cooperation.  And Syria plays a non-helpful role sitting strategically next to Lebanon, Iran, Turkey, and Iraq. 

If I am wrong and there was a US policy, what do you think it might have been to have produced these sad results?

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