I think there may be exactly one sentence in Shadi Hamid’s Atlantic article on Islamism, the Arab Spring, and what he deems “the failure of America’s do-nothing policy in the Middle East” with which I agree. Here’s the sentence:
The notion of neutrality, for a country as powerful as the United States, is illusory.
Read the article if you must. I disagree with much of the rest, in some cases vehemently.
I think I may have a different standard for the success or failure of our policies than Dr. Hamid. I think that our policy should be judged by whether it furthers our interests or not. What I’ve observed is that our actions have generally been less effective in promoting our interests than inaction would have been. That is to be expected. Americans generally are disinterested in other countries and their people. Until they aren’t. And that’s no basis on which to found solid courses of action.
Additionally, we’ve frequently been ineffectual in the Middle East but haven’t been inactive in more than forty years. We’re not inactive in Syria now. We’re supporting Sunni Arab rebels, just as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Al Qaeda, and DAESH are. We’ve also flown thousands of missions, most of which have destroyed little that hasn’t been replaced with ease and aren’t providing much in the way of a deterrent. Again, that’s ineffectual not inactive.
There is a view, remarkably popular nowadays and apparently particularly popular in the Middle East, that everything that happens does so because the U. S. government made it happen. Those who hold this view necessarily believe that no other country has any interests or pursues them and that potential is equivalent to action. It’s a convenient view because it absolves people of the follow of their own actions or inactions.
I hold very nearly the opposite view and believe that people in the Middle East who believe that their circumstances are entirely due to U. S. meddling are mistaken and Americans who believe the same thing are, as P. G. Wodehouse might have put it, far from hinged.
Invading Iraq sure started a bad cascade, but the ME is mostly doing what they have been doing to each other for years. We should stay out of the Sunni-Shia conflict.
Steve