Schooling Mitt On Middle East History
As others have already noted, Mitt’s busy showing just how ignorant he is of the Middle East as he outlines what President Barack Obama has said and done in the Middle East during his tenure and how Romney would do things differently in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
Disturbing developments are sweeping across the greater Middle East. In Syria, tens of thousands of innocent people have been slaughtered. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood has come to power, and the country’s peace treaty with Israel hangs in the balance. In Libya, our ambassador was murdered in a terrorist attack. U.S. embassies throughout the region have been stormed in violent protests. And in Iran, the ayatollahs continue to move full tilt toward nuclear-weapons capability, all the while promising to annihilate Israel.
These developments are not, as President Obama says, mere “bumps in the road.” They are major issues that put our security at risk.
Yet amid this upheaval, our country seems to be at the mercy of events rather than shaping them. We’re not moving them in a direction that protects our people or our allies.
And that’s dangerous. If the Middle East descends into chaos, if Iran moves toward nuclear breakout, or if Israel’s security is compromised, America could be pulled into the maelstrom.
We still have time to address these threats, but it will require a new strategy toward the Middle East.
Romney seems to ignore that the Middle East didn’t suddenly become a whirlpool of revolutions, protests, and civil wars. They have been a regular feature of the Middle East sociopolitical scene. Backing dictators and despots hasn’t always worked well in the past, and realpolitik means dealing with unsavory characters in the name of balancing power and influence between the US and former Soviet Union (before 1989) and Russia (thereafter). To Mitt, it may seem like a return to the old days is preferable to the current situation, but he’s seriously misreading what’s going on across the region.
The region has been a constant source of tensions.
There’s always a crisis or nuclear development, or Israel is threatened or imperiled. There’s always been regimes under threat from revolt. There have always been regimes that seek to destabilize their rivals and foes.
Just a quick history lesson and I’m using 1948 as a cutoff, though one could also indicate that the collapse and carveup of the Ottoman Empire following World War I set the current borders of the region in play:
1948 - Israel’s independence; Jordan invades and captures West Bank as part of war; Egypt takes Gaza.
1956 - France, Britain, Israel fight war against Egypt; war called by US/USSR and situation reverts to ceasefire lines from 1948.
1967 Six Day War - Israel captures West Bank, Sinai, Golan, Jerusalem - fighter planes buzz Cairo and Damascus.
1970 War of Attrition between Israel and Egypt; Palestinian terrorists hijack series of planes around world in .
1970-1971 - Black September - when the PLO tried to overthrow King Hussein and Hussein killed thousands of Palestinians before kicking the PLO out of the country
1972 - Black September Palestinian terrorists killed Israeli athletes and coaches at Munich Olympics.
1973 Yom Kippur War - after nearly losing the Golan to Syria and suffering heavy tank and plane losses at outset, Israel regains tactical and strategic advantages - nearly eliminating Egyptian military in Sinai and once again buzz Damascus with planes.
1975 - 1990 Lebanese civil war
1976 Entebbe raid (Palestinian terrorists capture plane, fly to Entebbe Uganda and Israeli special forces rescue hostages).
1978 Camp David Accords (running through 1981 with Sinai handover)
1979 Iranian revolution
1980 Iran hostage situation drags on
1980 - 1988 Iran-Iraq war - over borders of the Shaat al Arab (oil); hundreds of thousands killed on both sides
1981 Osirak raid by Israel against Iraqi nuclear plant; Egypt’s Sadat assassinated; Mubarak assumes power
1981 - 1986 US skirmishes with Libya, including air battles, US attacks against Khadafi
1982 Israel invades southern Lebanon because of PLO attacks, rise of Hizbullah and Marine barracks bombing in Beirut; Hama leveled by Hafez Assad (Hama rules); Sabra/Shatilla atrocities by Israeli-aligned militias
1983- 2005 Sudanese civil war (includes Darfur genocide)
1984 - CIA Station Chief Buckley kidnapped; Hijacking of Kuwait Airways Flt. 221
1985 Achille Lauro hijacking - Jewish American passenger killed and thrown into Med by Palestinian terrorists
1986 Berlin disco bombing (carried out by Libyan intel service) -
1986 - 1989 Anfal campaign in Kurdish Iraq - upwards of 1 million killed; more displaced
1988 - Pan Am 103 bombing - 270 killed; Libya implicated as revenge for attacks by US against Khadafi’s Libyan compound
1990 Iraq invades Kuwait - First Gulf War ensues (sanctions last through 2003 invasion in 2d Gulf War).
1993 1st WTC bombing (6 killed, 1000 injured)
That’s just a sampling of major and calamitous events from post WW2 period indicates that there hasn’t been a time when unrest hasn’t ruled the day. Actors in the Middle East and terrorists/proxies attacking US interests worldwide as a result has been the norm, not the exception.
Periods of calm are few and far between. Much more common is unrest, violence, and outright war. The selected items above don’t include major al-Qaeda terror attacks like the African embassy bombings; USS Cole attack; the ongoing terror attacks and strikes against safe havens in Somalia and Yemen; and actions such as Operation Cast Lead; the Hizbullah War; the Palestinian civil war (following the Gaza disengagement); the intifadas; etc.