ARTHUR'S ROAD MAP TO MIDDLE EAST pEACE
This is my "Road Map to Middle East Peace". For most of the last fifty years the Middle East has been the powder-keg of the world. Most of the world's violence, warfare and bloodshed has taken place on some important sand in the land of goat herders. Why has nothing worked? The reason is simple, the solution is not. Simply put, the people of the Middle East do not want peace. The Muslim world only understands death, despair and treachery and negotiating with a people who have nothing to give other than false assurances of cease-fires is a losing strategy.
I do believe that we have to identify the root of the problems in the Middle East. The first thing we have to overcome is Islam and the theocracies that use it as fuel to the flame of war. Iran is obviously the leading exporter of political hate in the region. I am of the opinion that Islam can be folded into the modern world but in order to do so we must ELIMINATE Islamic fundamentalism. We may think of Iran as the main enemy but that enmity stems from a primarily political standpoint. Iran is the biggest baddest piece of shit on the block. They are proud of their official intolerance and hatred for the Western world. So Iran is one problem without question. This nation's government MUST fall before anything of consequence can be accomplished in the region. But toppling the Iranian theocracy is only the tip of the iceberg, a darker and more secretive enemy of the West lurks under the guise of friendship and cooperation.
While toppling Iran and the Shia government is an important first step it does not eliminate Islamic fundamentalism. Sunni fundamentalism is actually more dangerous than its louder and more obnoxious bastard cousin, Shia fundamentalism. How you ask? Well Osama Bin Laden and his butt-fucking group are Sunnis. As much as we have learned to hate the Ayatollah in Iran at least we know the leader of that group is. Sunnis are everywhere and they have adapted to living the Western world, in fact, the vast majority of Muslims in Europe and the United States are Sunni. We know the birthplace of Shia Islam and the clowns that lead them but where does Sunni fundamentalism come from? The simple answer is Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam. Its holiest cities and sites are in Mecca and Medina and the annual pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the basic rites of the religion. That being said the leading Islamic "schools" whose main mission is to spread hatred of anything not Islam are in Saudi Arabia. I feel like I need to explain this because Saudi Arabia is seen as an "ally" in the Middle East and while their government does pay lip service to support us they only do it because they know they have to. We protected them from Saddam and they know that without our intervention they would have been incorporated into Iraq. They are also natural enemies of Iran and they like to play both sides so that they can stay out of the crossfire. Of course, like I mentioned before, Osama and most of Al-Qaeda hail from Saudi Arabia. They are children of wealth with no mission in life so they naturally lean towards extremism to give their lives meaning.
Arabia is, without question, the most backwards nation in the Middle East and in the world as a whole. No, I am not talking about economically or technologically, I am referring to the fact that they do not have a formalized legal code. They are Wahhabists, an ultra-conservative Sunni sect that practices a religion that is rife with intolerable human rights violations. We all think of Iran being backwards and they are compared to us but Iranian women can vote and go out of their houses without headscarves. That is not the case in Saudi Arabia. The official government line is that all residents MUST be Muslim. That type of intolerance is incomprehensible in the modern world. Other faiths are officially banned from practicing their religion. In contrast, Iran protects three non-Muslim faiths and practitioners of those religions are given seats in the parliament. Women in Saudi Arabia cannot drive and are forced, most of the time by traveling militia types at stick point, to walk behind men. Movies and alcohol are officially illegal, in other words, Saudi Arabia is a complete cluster fuck and in terms of day to day life not significantly different than the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Ok, so what is worse than a place where women can be openly flogged and where legal code is decided by local religious leaders? Well I will tell you... a place where young men live with free cash as a result of their genealogy and are able to flog women and sit in extremist "schools". That is Saudi Arabia in a nutshell. The economy of Saudi Arabia is in a free fall. The per capital income of the average Saudi has fallen from $25,000 in 1980 to $8,000 now due to explosive population growth. That economic decline is the largest ever seen in the history of the nation-state. This has led to an dramatic increase of unemployment, it is estimated that 60% of the under 30 demographic is unemployed.
We all know that young men with no jobs are trash, but men without jobs who are used to a life of privilege but are now forced to compete with millions of foreign nationals (who they are taught to hate in "school") for work is an utter disaster. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a ticking time bomb and we are seeing some of the shrapnel now in the form of Osama Bin Goat-Rapist and his boys. Saudi Arabia, in its current state, is the biggest threat to worldwide Islamic reform. They openly support the spread of Islam and use the Western World's money to fund mosques and madrassas worldwide. To make a very long story short, we are subsidizing terrorist playgrounds and training facilities. We must destroy the propped up government there and start from scratch. Will it be easy...hell no. But we must do it and here is how.
Leave it to me to solve arguably the world's biggest problem... here is my road map for lasting peace in the Middle East.
The first turn on my road map is to find any reasonable and secular groups of people who have something to gain from working with us. And no this cannot be the Israelis, they are at the core of the bloodshed. It is certainly not their fault but ultimately they are at the root of the problem. So let's look at our options for finding a nation or group who will support us and yet have some ability to reason with the fascists of the Middle East. Our traditional allies in the area (Israel and Kuwait) are the first nations to come to mind. Well, Israel is out for obvious reasons. Kuwait, while loyal, has no real power base and has nothing to gain from supporting us more strongly. They are simply oil barons with no real government or respect for democracy and secularism. So suffice to say we are starting at square one in terms of building a relationship with a group in the region.
The next nation that seems to be an option would be Turkey. They are, without question, the most modern and forward thinking Muslim nation. Turkey is, by regional standards, the most secular nation and is a member of NATO and a prospective EU member. The fact that they are so Westernized (in the eyes of the Muslim world) disqualifies them to be truly useful to our cause. Obviously Syria and Iran are not options so that leaves us with Egypt and Jordan. Egypt is a strange nation, economically viable, not oil dependent, and militarily useful to our cause. They are also skeptical of growing Iranian influence in the area. They have been the traditional power in the region so that is another positive. Hosni Mubarak seems to be a rational and reasonable man and Egypt is also a Sunni nation which makes them a traditional enemy of the Iranian theocracy.
Egypt is a changing nation. It has been a "republic" since 1952 but the Republic of Egypt has been led by a total of two men, Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak. This may not seem very republican and it is not. Egypt, like all other Arab nations, is not familiar with true democracy. That being said in 2005, Mubarak did allow for regional elections and parties that are unpopular with the government have gained seats in the Parliament. We all know that once people have any voice at all they will continue to push for choices in their national leadership. Mubarak will be the last "elected monarch" of Egypt. Laws are being drafted now to limit a president to two seven year terms.
The economy of Egypt is unusual for the Middle East due to its relative low oil production. That means that they have had to develop an economic infrastructure that is more Western than most Arab nations. Billions of dollars of foreign money are being pumped into the nation's booming stock market and the economic integration into the rest of the world is well underway. In the geopolitical world, investment equals influence. Legislation that has made the tax code less progressive has modernized the economy and encouraged entrepreneurship and spending. In other words, Egypt is a land of relative opportunity in the Middle East. The growth of the middle class is the main driver of the economic and political changes that make Egypt a suitable political, economic and military ally.
Bringing Egypt in the fold of US allies will be difficult but not unreasonably so. They have officially been non-aligned nation since the dawn of the republic. That basically means they have taken sides to whoever helps them the most, and recently that has been the United States. The US sends 2.3 billion dollars of aid to Egypt annually and that does bring some indirect influence. To make them an ally I would suggest that we boost aid five fold to $10 billion. Much of this aid would be in the form of military equipment and training. Of course, Israel would take exception to this but Israel is, at the end of the day, a US backed nation that knows where its proverbial bread is buttered. What do we get out of Egypt for arming them and assisting them with complete modernization of the economy? The payback will be their military, the strongest in Africa and only eclipsed in the Middle East by Israel, will be the police force for a revamped Saudi nation. We would make assurances that Egyptian corporations would be in the forefront of the reconstruction of Saudi Arabia and that Egypt would have increased access to the Saudi oil fields.
Egypt is certainly a viable potential ally but we need another group who has unquestioned loyalty and owes a debt to the West that they could never pay. This group must be tough, flexible and most importantly relatively secular. It is also important that they have some payback to inflict on their oppressors. That group, of course, is the Kurds.
Kurds are an ethnic group whose total population is estimated to be in the range of 35-45 million. They are the largest ethnic group who does not have a nation-state. My road map calls for that to change. The Kurds not only deserve to have a nation to call their own but it is, more importantly, in our best interests to use our political and military might to bring the dream of a Kurdish nation to fruition.
Kurds, as a people, lack extremist Muslim theology. They are officially Muslim but it is generally a fact that they adhere to a mix of indigenous, Islamic and Judaic ideologies. This mix makes them less adherent to Islam and makes them somewhat outsiders surrounded by Islamic nations. They are like an oasis of free thought in a morass of fascism, hate and ignorance. They have a native culture, language and common bond much like the Jews do. In many ways, they are like the Jews. The Kurdish diaspora is worldwide and the birth of a Kurdish democracy would be a terrific public relations move in addition to being a stroke of genius.
The nation of Kurdistan's capital city would be Mosul in what is now Iraq. It would encompass most of northern Iraq and the northwest corner of Iran. The territory that would be included in the new nation is rich in oil. They would have the sixth largest proven oil reserves in the world and thus make them economically viable from the outset. The nation of Kurdistan would also be multi-ethnic which makes democracy the only choice for competent government.
By allowing the nation of Kurdistan to rise up amongst its neighbors we would gain a nearly limitless reservoir of goodwill and admiration. It is also critical to understand the Kurds have been brutally oppressed by Iraq, Iran, and Turkey. Saddam gassed them in the 80s and 90s, the Iranians ignore their presence and the Turks undermine them politically by labeling them terrorists in order to hang on to the province of Turkey that would unquestionably become part of Kurdistan. It is not a stretch to say that they are natural enemies of those three nations and it is likely that they would be willing to help us bring order to their land. We would establish consortiums with the Kurdish government to secure oil rights. It would also be fair for us to ask for a site for a permanent military base to protect our blood-soaked investment.
I know that many of you are incapable of reading an article over a couple pages long so this concludes Part I. Part I gives you, the reader, an idea of the political and diplomatic strategy it will take to make the Middle East a worthwhile place in the world. Come back for Part II of Arthur's Road Map. It will lay out the action plan behind this incredibly brilliant plan.
-arthur@arthurshall.com |
