If you are a twenty something in the United States chances are that during most of your life our country has been at war. Whether it be operation Desert Storm or Iraqi Freedom it seems we have been a mainstay in the Middle East since the early 90's. Our participation in this area goes back much further than that though and is the cause of some modern issues. But the real question is why are we there? To stop terrorism? To insert Democratic regimes? or to protect our lifeblood, oil.
The answer here is a little bit of all three. The reasons we are still embattled in the Middle East are the same as they have been over the centuries for all whom try to bring order here. The English and French protectorates created by the Sikes-Picot line skewed the populations and states based on geography instead of ethnicity. This has created many states that in turn have three of more groups within their borders that cannot coexist. This is ultimately the issue behind many of the modern Middle Eastern problems and the terrorism that grows there.
But how can we escape the Middle East? Clearly we could insert more troops and try to overpower our enemies in the M.E. However, in the past this has not worked well and the American people have not shown the willpower or the stomach to endure a tough war with many casualties. The terror groups know this and understand it. They attack to create fear and play on these American tendencies to retreat at the slightest sign of a battle turning bad.
In my mind there seems to be only one option. While we need the oil and it is crucial to world security to maintain a stable Middle East the United States must abandon our mission here. Looking at history no one has been able to bring peace to the Middle East. You have to go all the way back to the Ottoman empire during World War I in order to see a unified people in this area. But in carving up the losing empires the Europeans created the most unholy of all messes. One that would spawn conflicts for the next one hundred plus years and kill millions. Keeping all of this in mind i advocate that the only smart option left is to withdraw from the Middle East. Pull all of our citizens, military and other personnel out of the area and let the issues work themselves out. The Middle East is not a child that needs to be raised in the Democratic ideologue. These people identify by their faith and that plays into having a strong authoritarian leader. Only once the western countries are out of the way can the fight that needs to occur happen. The Middle East needs one country to rise up and conquer a few others. The area needs a leading power to bully the other states and give them all a direction. This is what has been missing and what is needed for peace to ever develop in the Middle East. Sometimes the best thing is not to fight the fire, rather just sit back and watch it burn.
