Peace in The Middle East

The topic of the American presence in the Middle East is something I am actually very passionate about. I got to take a three week class at UCSD a couple years ago that covered Terrorism primarily, and the third week was spent entirely on this topic. Having actually spent the time digging into this, I now feel that it is so much more complicated than I or most people have ever expected. The possibility of a self elected government is something I personally hope for, and would support whole-heartedly.

If there were to be a fully organized, proper, and open election for a legitimate government, I feel that it is something that should be supported by the United States. There are many things that we can do for the Middle East and the countries involved, but we can in no way provide them with a government of any sort. That is something that must completely come from within. We can try to help and guide them in some small behind the scenes ways, but on the whole, it is not up to us. I feel that we do not even want to play a large part in supporting certain candidates for fear of influencing the results, positively or negatively. We could try to instill our own idea of a government, put in power the individuals we choose, but that would only make things harder for the countries involved. We might as well be considering them to be colonies if that is how we act, and that is a hole we do not want to dig for ourselves.

A government is something that must be discovered by the country itself. That is what the United States did, we decided that we did not like the government we were under, so we left and created our own. Obviously the Articles of Confederation are proof that it was not a hole in one, but a process. We had to create the government ourselves, based on what we decided on as a people group. The same process must happen in the Middle East. We cannot expect them to automatically accept whatever government and leaders we think is good for them. Instead we must allow them to do this for themselves, make the necessary mistakes, and build it for themselves.

The United States must step back and let things work out for themselves in the Middle East. I also know that we are hunting for terrorists, and working to keep our own country safe from said threats, that is a large part of our presence in these countries. That is fine, it is necessary. On the other hand, we cannot force our way into their newly growing political structure, just because we are America and we think we know best. There are already a suprisingly large number of players in the decision making processes, they do not need an obnoxious third party who thinks they know everything there is to know. The United States really needs to step back, keep ourselves and the civilians safe as best we can, and let them learn on the own, like a child really. There are some lessons that simply cannot be taught, only learned.