US should disengage from the Mideast

The cradle of civilisation is experiencing more fragmentation, with fewer common interests. The Sunni-Shi’ite schism is broadening, with rogue states, separatist movements and jihadists spreading unrest. Tribes, dynasties, clans, military, judiciary and bureaucracy factions are involved in a cutthroat power struggle.

The US is playing a far-from-neutral role, having sent the first armoured division, around 200 troops, to Jordan under the guise of assisting it in handling the surge of Syrian refugees. The US has also signed arms treaties with Israel and Saudi Arabia. It’s time to re-evaluate and rethink America’s decades-old Middle Eastern policy, which was fashioned in the miscalculated aftermath of the Cold War. Obsolete thinking must yield to a more contemporary and realistic approach. Growing domestic US dependence on foreign oil resources and greedy vested interests convinced Washington that US military intervention was needed in the region, but that is no longer the case.

Growing divergence of interests between allies Israel and the US in the post-Cold War era allowed for a shameful humanitarian debacle in the mistreatment of Palestinians. The pro-Israeli and pro-oil lobbies forcefully manipulated decision-makers to make interventionist commitments in the region. Bottom line: wouldn’t we all be better off if Washington were to gradually disengage diplomatically and militarily from Mideast intervention and concentrate instead on ensuring civil rights, creating jobs, balancing the budget, helping the poor help themselves and getting the derailed US domestic agenda back on the fast track?

Charles Frederickson                          

Bangkok