ARTHUR'S ROAD MAP TO MIDDLE EAST pEACE: PART II
In my last installment, I formulated a diplomatic and political strategy that will solve, once and for all, the world's biggest problem...The Middle East. As all you right minded conservatives know, a plan without a series of actions is merely words. For decades now, we have heard about roadmaps, ceasefires and the like but nothing has changed. Why? Because the powers that be have been unwilling to take ACTION. Peace agreements without the threat of overwhelming force are merely public relations stunts. A perfect example of this were the Oslo Accords. We saw our President (Clinton) doing his thing, smiling and laughing it up with infamous terrorist, Yasser Arafat. That spineless piece of shit knew that nothing good would come of this so-called agreement but he took the opportunity to bask in the sun as a peacemaker and in the process transformed Mr. Terrorist Arafat into a Nobel Peace Price winner.
Ten years later the crisis continues. The world has seen a full-scale war in Lebanon in response to Hezbollah's rocket attacks into Israel. We have suffered at the hands of terrorists ourselves with the destruction of our embassy in Tanzania, the bombing of the USS Cole and, of course, the attacks of 9/11 and the recent kidnapping and subsequent “gift” release of 15 British seamen by Iran. Two wars rage on in Iraq and Afghanistan, actions taken by a President who had seen enough of this peace charade. What have we learned? Unfortunately, most of the world has learned nothing. We now face a litany of problems; a nuclear Iran, a fragmented nation in Iraq, a weakened Israel and most importantly we face the growing consensus here and abroad that Western military supremacy is of little use in the Middle East. The world chooses to blame the crisis on the Israeli “occupation” of Palestine, our colonial past, Western exploitation of oil and the legacy of the Crusades. The excuses are endless and irrelevant. The time for action in the Middle East is now. Here is my action plan for lasting peace in the Middle East.
The first action to be taken is the partitioning of Iraq. This involves splitting Iraq into three parts. Northern Iraq would be the centerpiece of the new Kurdistan. The Sunni Triangle could either choose independence or a union with traditional ally, Jordan. Southern Iraq would remain Iraq and be a Shia dominated nation. Baghdad would be split along sectarian lines and the inevitable battle for control of Baghdad would no longer concern us, it would become a Sunni/Shiite war which is exactly what we want. The carnage there would help us convince the rest of the Arab world that change, drastic change was their only real option. Iran would obviously have interests in the new Iraq and that is perfect. The slaughter of Sunnis by the Iranian-backed Shia Iraq would lead to reprisals by the predominantly Sunni Arab world. The backlash against Iran would pave the way for Egypt, Jordan, and possibly Syria to unite at least diplomatically against Iran. Syria, of course is a client state of Iran but with the support of allies Egypt and Jordan I have no doubt that Bashar Assad, a reasonable and Western educated man, would lead Syria out of Iran's orbit and into a loosely allied Sunni led coalition. I am certainly not suggesting that those nations would join in the fight but they would join the rest of the rest of the world in the philosophical disagreement with Iran.
While the partitioning of Iraq and the creation of Kurdistan is the first step to my master plan it is by no means the last. I believe that the aforementioned events would take one year, maybe two. This time would give us time to train and arm the Kurds for step two of the Arthur's Hall roadmap to Middle East peace...the toppling of Islamic Iran. I have no illusions about the desires of the people of Iran. I know they do not want to live in a completely Western nation but I also know that they are frustrated with the current state of Iranian politics. One quarter of the Iranian population under 15 years old and the median age of Iran is 25. The younger generation of Iran is more liberal than the revolution-era generation and the simple act of killing the Islamic clerics that run Iran would bolster the opposition parties that currently operate in the shadows and back alleys of Iran. Them, along with disgruntled young people and the five million Kurds in Iran would prove to be a formidable opponent for the Islamic government.
My plan would entail having the Kurds invade the predominantly Kurdish area of northwestern Iran. Keep in mind that most of the five million Iranian Kurds live in this area so local resistance would be light. It is certainly conceivable that the Iranian Kurds would enthusiastically join their brothers in the struggle. There is certainly historical precedence for the Iranian Kurds to strive for independence. The Kurds of Iran declared independence from Iran in 1945 with support from the Soviet Union. Unfortunately after WWII the Allies were in no mood to upset the status quo in the Middle East and did not recognize the Kurdish Republic and it was crushed by Iran in 1947. Many of the leaders of that nation fled to the USSR and eventually resettled in Iraq to become leaders of the Kurds in Iraq.
Turkey would also have to be placated for the establishment of Kurdistan. The Turkish Kurds have fought for independence since the early 1900s and established a republic in Turkey (The Republic of Ararat) in 1927. As before, the world did not come to the aid of the fledgling nation and it was smashed by the Turks. Kurds make up 8-20% of Turkey's population and mostly live in eastern Turkey. Turkey has always feared a united Kurdistan and the potential for lost territory. In fact, Kurdish language was banned in Turkey until the 1990s. That, along with almost constant skirmishes in Turkish Kurdistan, has created significant animosity between the Turks and independence minded Kurds. Fortunately, Turkey is a member of NATO and a long time ally of the West. The United States and Britain would negotiate with Turkey for the release of Kurdish rebels and for Turkish recognition of Kurdistan. In return, we would allow Turkey to keep its modern borders and help the Kurds of Turkey to leave peacefully.
The Iranians would certainly retaliate against the Kurds and that would give us and our allies cause to intervene in Iran. I do not envision a full scale invasion but rather a covert mission that would be spearheaded by tactical assassinations and targeted air attacks. With most of the Iranian theocracy on the run and in hiding the current government would collapse and the people of Iran would choose some form of self rule. I have no doubt that there would be sectarian violence between Kurds, Azeris and the ruling Persians. This would only galvanize the Kurdish nation and the end result would be a more moderate ruling class in Iran along with the merging of the Iraqi and Iranian Kurds into a larger and more economically viable Kurdistan.
The borders of Kurdistan would include the Al Hasakah province of Syria, the provinces of As Sulaymaniyah, Erbil, Dahuk, Diyala, Kirkuk, Ninawa of Iraq and the provinces of West Azerbijian, East Azerbijian, Ardabil, Gilan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Ilam of Iran. Kurdistan would have access to the Caspian Sean which would allow the Kurds to have uninterrupted oil pipelines instead of relying on natural enemies Iran and Turkey. The Kurds long for a nation of their own and they will fight for it. With our diplomatic, economic and military support they would prevail and we would have an economically powerful and oil-rich ally in the Middle East.
The third and final step of my roadmap is, by far, the most difficult...eradicating Islamic fundamentalism once and for all. The actions above would realign nations and rearrange diplomatic and political alliances in our favor but in order to cure the plague that is Islamic fundamentalism the virus must be destroyed. That virus is the decrepit Saudi nation. As we know, Saudi Arabia is the leading exporter of petroleum and Jihadists. A vast majority of the money that supports Islamic fundamentalism worldwide comes directly from the ruling family of Saudi Arabia. They have done an incredible job of masking it through backchannels and so-called Islamic Schools.
With Iran out of the picture, Saudi Arabia becomes the most powerful Islamic government in the world. They have been our “allies” but that alliance is out of convenience. They have oil and we have money and unrivaled military might. The alliance has been an uneasy one throughout its history but we did save them from invasion at the hands of Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War. On the other hand, they did not allow us to use their nation as a base for the second Gulf War. The aging ruling family of Saudi Arabia is playing both sides out of necessity. If they were to openly to oppose the United States they would face increased scrutiny of their affairs (which would no doubt lead to asset freezes and possibly sanctions for arming and supporting terrorists worldwide). At home, they must not appear to be too pro-Western of they face a revolt that would topple the government. This revolt would be led by the same Jihadists who blow themselves up in airplanes, fan the flames of violence in Iraq and support the Palestinian resistance in Israel.
Saudi Arabia is much like Iran in the 1970s under the Shah. The government is rife with nepotism, corruption and is propped up by foreign money and support. These conditions create an undercurrent where people search out something not bought and paid for. In both cases, the people have looked to radical Islam as a remedy for the hopelessness of their daily lives. The only real difference is that the bulk of Iranians are Shiite while Saudis are almost exclusively Sunnis. The only thing lacking in Saudi Arabia has been the person to unite the opposition like the Ayatollah Khomeini.
bad as Islamic Iran has been, an Islamic Saudi Arabia would be more dangerous to the Western world. Why? Iran, as a nation, has a history of ethnic, linguistic and religious heterogeneity. This makes it less capable of uniting against an enemy or ideology. Saudi Arabia, in contrast, is extremely homogeneous. The Saudis are exclusively Arab, speak Arabic and worship as Sunni Muslims. Compound that with an utter lack of history as a nation and you have a ticking suicide bomb. It is not hard to see how a man with the charisma and skill to overthrow the only ruling family in Saudi history would be able to unite the nation with one cause, the destruction of the West. We cannot allow that to happen. Is the answer to prop up a decaying and corrupt government? Keeping human trash in charge of piss ant nations has served us well in our history but this is not one of those times.
Destroying and rebuilding Saudi Arabia is a momentous task. As we have shown in Iraq, our military is not structured for nation building and occupation. Our military is an unstoppable force that is capable of bringing the proudest of governments to their knees. This is not the correct course of action in Saudi Arabia. I mentioned earlier in my dissertation that we should ally ourselves with moderate and rational states in the Middle East. Of course, I am not convinced many are so I called the creation of Kurdistan. Kurdistan serves two purposes: 1) gives us a base of operations for actions in Iran and Syria if necessary and 2) secures an ally that will be on par with Saudi Arabia in oil production. By this time, Iran will have been destroyed and Kurdistan will be a young but influential republic within the Middle East. This will bring Bashar Assad and others to the bargaining table. I would propose that the forces of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Kurdistan would occupy Saudi Arabia after our military destroyed any major military targets. These nations would not do this out of their concern for the world, they would do it for a slice of trillions of dollars that would be spent building Saudi Arabia into a modern nation. We would not be rebuilding Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is not a nation, it is collection of people collecting royalty checks held together by a family who would be penniless Bedouins if it were not for the black gold in the sand.
The first step of the construction of Saudi Arabia and the dismantling of Islamic fundamentalism is to force the ruling family to abdicate to a council (named the Saudi Reconstruction Council) led by the governments of the United States, Britain, Jordan, Egypt and Kurdistan. All Saudi owned assets would be frozen worldwide and redistributed later either to the new Saudi Reconstruction Coalition. It goes without saying that annexation will result in bloodshed. Islamofascists would call for Jihad in their homeland and many would respond. Some may think of this as a negative consequence, I argue that it is the opposite. Because US troops would not be on the ground, the lunatics would be forced to kill other Muslims in their effort to free their holy land. Soon the troops and the moderate Muslims would come to realize that they (the SRC troops) were defending the holy land and that Islamofascists were in fact defaming them with their horrific actions and tactics. Stabilizing the initial waves of violence would take years not months.
war is not of tactics, strategy and body counts. The action in Saudi Arabia would be the final step in creating a more modern form of Islam that can coexist with the world. This can only be done by destroying the foundation of the religion in Saudi Arabia. All mosques would be taken away from the current leaders and those mosques would be turned over to Muslim leaders from the SRC that would be cleared by the entire coalition. This would not be popular but in order to change the way that Islam is preached you must change the preachers. If the current leaders resist, they will be executed publicly. US troops would be called in to preside over the Hajj and if the worshipers were to become unruly...the Hajj would be canceled and the people there extricated.
Saudi Arabia, after my plan, would cease to exist. Mecca and Medina would be ruled by the SRC permanently and all possessions of the government or religious entities in Saudi Arabia would be taken, by force if necessary. A constitution would be drawn up to allow for the slow progression towards self rule. The parliament would be voted upon by all Saudis (including women) and that chamber would elect one leader who would join the council as a voting member. The very act of electing a leader of the birthplace of Islam would only erode the power of Islam and transform the people into a more free-thinking and modern people.
The area of the former Saudi Arabia would be under provincial rule for a minimum of ten years. If a nation had second thoughts about their involvement and pulled troops out their seat on the council would be taken by nations who were willing to step in and deploy troops and resources to the theater. I envision a sort of Islamic Disneyland in the new Arabia. It would be ruled by the religion at large and have no political, military or ideological significance. You see, I could care less about Islam existing at all. I would rather their religion become tradition and superstition. Within one generation the firebrand clerics and maniacs that rule Islam now would be replaced by entrepreneurial preachers of sort who give the impression of Islamic teaching but truly would be destroying it.
Fifty years from now, when we are old and gray we will look back at this time as the apex of Islamic fundamentalism. Their time is now. The oil money that suspends the people in a state of lavish hopelessness is running out. The Western world is slowly cutting ties with oil. They feel it slipping away now. That is why Iran has become obsessed with obtaining a nuke. We cannot allow that to happen. The inevitable exhaustion of Saudi and Iranian oil along with the establishment of my new order in the Middle East will gives us lasting peace in the Middle East. The time is now for us to put this roadmap into action and give fundamental Islam the only sentence it deserves: a death caused by first isolation, slow but steady starvation, arduous torture, and finally death, becoming a mere footnote in history never to be mourned or even remembered.
-arthur@arthurshall.com |
