Posted on 05/14/2008 9:21:47 PM PDT by The_Republican
Watching the news from Lebanon, it's poignant to read the title of a new memoir by Jordan's former foreign minister, Marwan Muasher, "The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation." The daily headlines tell us that centrist Arabs such as Muasher are becoming an endangered species.
The center is under siege in Lebanon and across the Middle East as the region becomes more polarized between Iranian-backed extremists and U.S.-backed forces. Iran's proxies strike at will: seizing control of Beirut neighborhoods in a naked show of defiance; lobbing missiles into Israel from Gaza to disrupt peace talks; creating havoc in southern Iraq and Baghdad.
And then, with the cunning that makes Iran such a difficult adversary, Tehran's friends retreat -- striking deals that tilt each time a bit more in favor of the radicals. It's a familiar pattern: Iran unsheathes the sword, bloodies the moderates enough to show its power and then puts the sword back in the sheath. Would that America were so deft in helping its friends.
Muasher's book raises what may be the most damning criticism of the Bush administration's Middle East policy -- that it has unwittingly undercut the very people the United States wanted most to help. In Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and even Jordan, the moderate voices in the center are weaker now than they were when President Bush took office in 2001. The United States has exposed its allies to danger and has not had the diplomatic skills to create a stable new order.
"Years from now, when the history of the modern Middle East will be written, what will it be titled . . . 'The Center Could Not Hold' or 'A New Beginning'?" asks Muasher. That question is still in the balance, but the current evidence is discouraging.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
If pro-US middle-easterners are “extremists”, I’d hate to meet an middle-eastern “moderate”.
The Middle east has “moderates?”
Who knew?
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