U.S. Middle East Policy & Future Concerns

The Obama administration's attempt at constructive engagement with restive middle eastern nations including Yemen, Lybia and Syria bring into the mix a potential packet of new troubles and concerns for Americans in addition to those anticipated to arise as America withdraws from Iraq and Afghanistan. Hubris, misunderstanding and shortsightedness seem to have increased markedly in foreign policy since the end of the Reagan administration.

Syria's government by an Allawite minority has a violent, repressive history without question-and they have not been friends of either the United States or Israel, yet helping to displace that government and force in a sunni or orthodox government possibly as a way to curb Iranian influence is an exceptionally blindered point of view.

The United States has taken upon itself the task of spending trillions of dollars and billions for maintennence of hegemony in a moslem world that won't be converted to assured economic compliance with misguided U.S. interests through money and war. As a way to expand a bent kind of economic, expansive megelomania and resource access abroad, the U.S.A. forgoes rational national economic and environmental security interests and the need to develop a steady state economy nationally while encouraging the same internationally to instead invest in ill-conceived protracted, incompetant neo-military nation shaping abroad.

President Reagan's economic approach invested in the U.S.A. rather than overseas. His energy policy and taxation rates are not correct for today either. Iraq is likely to falir into terrorist incidents after the U.S. military leaves entirely, Afghanistan will not transition to a nation of Ford salespersons soon, and Lybia will probably encounter terrorism rather than a smooth transition into the Waldensian Jeffersonian democracy in the near term-at least the French have a chance to fly Mirages over North Africa for a while. The United States should not invest more hundreds of billions in these Moslem ventures at interminable temporary stabilization even if they might by more Ipads someday.