Comments

April 21, 2008 at 4:20 pm

(1) Igor Sill says:

I believe that the United Nations, not America should be leading the charge towards world peace. While the world is looking for leadership, America faces it’s own challenges. It needs to remedy these which are incredibly intertwined, yet solve-able, before providing advise and guidance. The UN was founded with this very purpose, has established an infrastructure to tackle such, and has the world wide credibility, unlike us, to do so. America’s challenges are: 1) Middle East crisis; 2) Debt crisis; 3) Energy crisis. Each of our crisis’s are inexplicably threaded to one another. Understandably, our Middle East strategy evolved rapidly through the necessity of our 9/11 response and subsequent national security policies. Our response evolved into the current administration’s foundation for our foreign policy position of today. Our protectionist approach to Israel has served to tip the balance further aggravating the Palestinian/Israel conflict. Palestine deserves an independent State as Israel deserves to be recognized as a State. Everyone agrees with this, but the Palestinian’s can not seem to take responsibility for governing themselves or establishing and maintaining the governing institutions required of a nation state to function. Yesterday, Khaled Mashaal, Palestine’s Hamas leader extended an offer through former President Carter that Hamas would accept a Palestinian state limited to the lands Israel seized in 1967, an offer that should be seriously reviewed and considered. This issue remains one of the key focal points, if not the key issue in the complexities behind the Middle East conflict.

Without a peaceful resolution, Arab nations witnessing the chaos and displacement of Arabs from their lands have evolved into two groups, one of peacemakers (Saudis) and Islamists fueled with idealistic dominance of the Arab world (Iran). Iran’s behavior is understandable, as they have found success in speaking for revolution versus a nation state orientation. Iran is vying for position as the culturally dominate nation in the Middle East. It justifies itself with development of nuclear capability to empower itself against US Middle East involvement, as well as preparing itself for the US’ inevitable departure from Iraq, wherein it can optimize its position, that of Arab leader-nation stature. It requires the collapse of Israel with which to fully gain that stature and it has openly stated its goals towards that end. It continues to funnel fighters and monies into Afghanistan, into Iraq, and by way of Syria, directly into Hamas in Gaza and into Hezbollah in Lebanon. Protecting and safeguarding those borders are immediately paramount, with stabilization of the Middle East, of course, being the long term goal. The cost that America has and continues to expend has propelled us into the largest debt in our history. Our justification has ultimately been protection of our oil consumption and the strength it places on our national economy. Clearly, there are much deeper details involved here, but, if we fundamentally understand the dynamics at play, we can consider more plausible and effective solutions over our present course. By allowing the United Nations to undertake the leadership role as the world’s problem solver and peacekeeper a more credible stabilizing force will evolve the Middle East. Certainly, we need to participate and support, but not lead, nor dominate their efforts and decision-making capacity, rather provide the UN with the resources it requires, then, respect and abide by the UN council’s collective decisions. The Middle East crisis can only be resolved by the players who own the crisis, with the UN participating in negotiations, setting policy, then guiding and enforcing them. America’s Middle East departure will serve to strengthen our national security while generating world wide respect. Our economy will rebound soon thereafter. Ours is an entrepreneurially driven, innovative, highly efficient and resilient economy. With detrimental economic obstacles under control, we will evolve and adapt with new alternative energy sources, thereby relinquishing our dependence of Middle East oil, and balance our nation’s budget. The Palestinians have extended their hand with a viable proposal. We should allow the UN to negotiate and resolve the Palestinian/Israel issue and put an end to the epic center of turmoil. A new administration with a different perspective and approach will go a long way towards achieving that end.

Igor Sill
Royal Economics Society member, National Committee on American Foreign Policy member
San Francisco, CA USA