Peace In The Middle East

The Middle East, also known as the Near East, is a region made up of the lands of Southwestern Asia and Northwestern Africa. The Middle East encompasses several countries. However, the countries that we are most familiar with are Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Syria. Other areas like the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are also in the news a lot. It is a known fact that there has never been lasting peace in the Middle East; even before Moses. These countries have rarely, if ever, gotten along with each other. It has been this way for well over two thousand years. The United States, Great Britain, and the United Nations, have sent troops to this region of the world on several different occasions in an effort to restore peace. For world peace to exist in the Middle East forced long-term occupation, marshal law, and a conditional government is an absolute certainty.

Most of the fighting in the Middle East is over land and religious differences. In this region most of its population practice Islam and Judaism. The majority of the fighting in the last two centuries has been between the Arabs who are Muslim and Israel who follow Judaism. This struggle started in the early 1900’s over control of Palestine. This was an area that the Arabs had occupied for many years. In the late eighteen hundreds Jews moved into the area in large numbers. This was brought on by European intellectuals who began supporting the idea that Jews should settle in Palestine, which is described in the Bible as the Jews ancient homeland.

This movement became known as Zionism, and was based on European Anti-Semitism. This hatred toward the Jews resulted in violent attacks against them. Palestine at that time was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, which was centered in modern day Turkey. In the beginning the Jews and the Muslims lived in peace and got along. However, as more Jewish immigrants move in they started having conflicts. The United Kingdom gained control as a result of World War I, and then as a result of the Holocaust and World War II most of the countries that defeated Germany supported the idea of creating a place where Jews would be safe from persecution. In November of 1947 the United Nations approved a plan to divide Palestine in to two states. One Jewish (which became Israel) and the other Palestinian, Zionist leaders accepted the plan after all half was better than nothing.

Arab governments and the Palestinians saw this as a theft of Arab land.  British rule over Palestine ended in 1948. The very next day Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, and Iraq attacked Israel. Israel fought back and absorbed most of the land that the UN had set aside for them. Palestine, Egypt and Jordan occupied the rest of the area. The war ended in 1949. As a result seven hundred thousand Palestinians became refugees. There was the Suez Canal crisis in 1956. Then more conflict in 1967, When, Gamal Abdel Nasser the ruler of Egypt closed the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping. This was Israel’s only access to the Red Sea. In 1973 we have even more conflict as Israeli and Egyptian troops attack each other across the western border of the Sinai Peninsula. These conflicts keep going. Treaties are signed and broken throughout this same time period. As we can see, these countries just cannot get along for love nor money, oil, land, or anything else for that matter.   

Over the last three thousand years this region has fallen under the rule of several, different, Empires .The Assyrians, from what is now Northern Iraq. Then the Medes, what is now northern Iran. The Persians came from what is now Iran and Afghanistan. In 331B.C The Macedonian King Alexander the Great conquered the Middle East. In 30 B.C the Romans had conquered most of the Middle East. During Roman rule Jesus Christ was born, Christianity became the major religion up until the  600’sA.D Along about  610 A.D the Muslim religion was born. Various groups gained control of different parts of the Middle East. The Turks, European Christians in, 1096, and Mongols from Central Asia invaded in the 1200’s and again in the 1400’s. The Ottoman Empire was the worlds most powerful of Empires during the 1500's-1600’s during this period they tried to conquer Europe twice attacking Vienna and Austria. They were basically overthrown by Franc, Italy and the United Kingdom. This region of the world has been ruled, over-ruled, conquered again and again. They have never really known what peace is. It is time to do something and take action, an action that should have happened sixty years ago.

A lot of people oppose this war that we are in and rightly so, no one in his or her right mind enjoys war. The reality of it is that even if these countries did not have weapons of mass destruction, they do possess the knowledge on how to build one. And more than likely they have the various components to assemble it. If they don’t they know how to get them. The United States over the years has realized along with other nations that these types of weapons are never a good answer to diplomatic problems. That, there is not a problem that cannot be talked about first before the use of strategic arms are used to directly wipe out critical defense and storage locations. When talking has led us nowhere, this is why we are there today. 

Some people feel that it is there country their problem just let them fight it out. That is good idea and maybe we should but that takes us back the misuse of weapons of mass destruction. It is the opinion of some that all we are going to do is create more hostility over there toward Americans thus creating more terrorist attacks. Oddly enough there has not been any more terrorist attacks on U.S soil since 9/11 and our invasion of Afghanistan and then into Iraq. In the past countries have over ruled the Middle East out greed and the thirst for power if the U.S. were to do this it would strictly be to preserve world peace and the spread of democracy. It is my belief that the United States may have made an error in judgment. Instead of having a few bombing raids to clean out critical defense locations, to gain their attention We should have gone in and leveled every single building that even looked like it was being used by the military every palace. All there planes, motor pools, and anything that resembled a military vehicle.

Once we had defeated them and wore them down then send in the ground troops to flush the guerrillas and any combatants that might not have gotten the word that there was a new government in town. War is messy you are going to lose a few troops. Think about it this way if we had taken these action years ago, how many lives would we have saved on both sides. Would 9/11 or Lockerbie have ever happened.  When law and order is restored then you seize their assets. The oil wells, the refineries, factories, farms, weapons, and other valuable state owned properties. Impose Marshall Law and establish curfews. Then assess the damages and take inventory of what you have to work with. Establish a conditional government and start the rebuilding process.

   The long term occupation would need to be at least one hundred years. The reason for the one hundred year occupation is because it will take the life of at least two generations of peace to instill the younger generations with the desire to maintain peace. As for creating more hostility the biggest majority of the population, already dislike the United States and that is putting it kindly. Most of these attitudes of discontentment toward Americans are instilled in the younger generation through the elders. The one hundred year occupation would help to eliminate this over time

Some will say that this whole idea is absurd that we do not have the strength, fire power, or the man power to undertake such an operation of this nature. I for one really believe that we do. It would definitely take everything that we had at this moment. But just as we did during World War II and other wars, you gear up; you prepare before hand, and create a surplus of arms and weaponry. So that you are ready for a long and dangerous fight. Some would say that this makes us just as bad as the other empires that have come before us. Going in peacefully would be nice. But I highly doubt that if we just go marching in to these countries and tell them that in an effort to have world peace we are here to take over your country and teach you about how to maintain a peaceful existence. And once we have done this we will turn it back over to you in one hundred years. They are not going to be very accepting of our generosity.

In 2011 Obama made it clear that the U.S. would pull all troops out of Iraq by the end of the year. He had to do something after all 2012 was an election year. It was obvious that he was not worried about Iraq. Even after top military leaders and a handful of senators had advised President Obama against pulling all of the troops out of Iraq. After almost nine years of fighting in Iraq we pulled out. During that nine year stretch we ousted Saddam Hussein from power at the loss of almost 4500 American troops and an estimated price tag of $700 Billion. While Iraq lost tens of thousands of citizens, Perhaps if we had gone in from the very beginning and taken over we would have lost only half as many brave men and women at a far-less price tag. Not to mention the fact that the United States could have recouped some of its expenses after seizing government assets such as oil and gas fields.  

 If this were to happen it could be a good thing for all the countries involved. Because, some of the medical facilities that these countries have are lacking Doctors from the United States could do there residency there providing better medical care than they have probably had in the past. Gas prices in the United States would drop and possibly stabilize for once. It would open the doors for the expansion in all kinds of jobs Teachers, medical professions, Businesses, and engineers just to mention a few.  As time passed we would gradually give them back some of the power to govern themselves. Helping them to build a democratic society as time passed, supposedly we are trying to do this in Iraq already. This helps but it won’t be near as effective as having the three or four countries that have the biggest problem getting along with each other, all getting the same indoctrination simultaneously. Because the minute we leave Iraq It is all going to start all over again. Iran, Israel, Jordan, Syria, stubborn insurgents allied with Shi'ite Militiamen and Al Quaeda forces.  Either by themselves or as a group will start something. 

History will repeat itself because this is all they know. As for those who say we have no business there I disagree. As long as they are fighting in the Middle East, other countries in the world are not safe from the affects of their inability to get along. We have lost enough young men and women to their so called causes. I know that this will probably never take place but until it does happen, or something else of the same magnitude occurs, world peace remains nothing more than a sweet dream.