By Ted Belman
Fouad Ajami argues Robert Gates Is Right About Iraq. Robert Gates, in his farewell remarks, had advocated for keeping US forces in Iraq.
Remember Gates was part of the Iraq Study Group along with Baker and Hamilton. Their Report was embraced by Pres Bush who was reeling from attacks by the anti-war groups in America. This report set the state for American policy in the ME and was followed by Bush and Obama. It advocated “a staged retreat from the Iraq war and an accommodation with Syria and Iran”. But more important, the Report held that “The key to the American security dilemma in the region, … was an Arab-Israeli settlement that would drain the swamps of anti-Americanism and reconcile the Arab “moderates” to the Pax Americana.” These realists also believed that “George W. Bush’s entire diplomacy of freedom, were projects of folly—romantic, self deluding undertakings in the Arab world.”
Thus began a renewed effort to force a “peace” agreement on Israel culminating in the policies of Obama. Except for these efforts, the other recommendation of the report regarding engagement have been discredited and so has its rejection of the pursuit of democracy. Obama is no longer arguing for engagement with Iran and is now a bigger advocate of democracy for the Arabs than Bush was.
I share the realists’ view regarding efforts to spread democracy but reject the the other aspects of the ISG which called for engagement and a renewed peace process,
Is it too much to hope that forcing a peace on Israel will also be abandonned and replaced with the idea that a strong Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria will help keep the peace in the region just as keeping American forces in Iraq will?
Of course it is.
This makes perfect theoretical sense to any objective observer in a vacuum. However, it cannot come to pass, not because it does not make sense, but because of the documented intransigence and objective of the Arabs to accept no peace agreement that includes the survival of Israel as a Jewish state.
The so-called “realists” were wrong as Iraq is now a multi-ethnic, multi-party democracy, the only one in the Arab world, thanks to the stubborn foresight of George W. Bush. If the Americans will stick with it and be more aggressive in wiping out the Taliban, Afghanistan will also be some day. Both these countries had never experienced anything like freedom and democracy before. Now the majority of their citizens are standing up to the forces of Islamic militancy and terrorism.
Why does anyone have to hope for this result as it is already a fait accompli because of the intransigence of the Arabs.
Why should it be too much to hope for a rational step in the Middle East morass? I hate to return to the arguments of the 1960s, but at least this reminder: Israel did not come into being by arguments, but by ideas, faith, and concerted actions. Now is that time again.