My View of the Middle East from Far Away

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There is apparently a deep split between the Islamic and even secular groups in the Middle East. It's unfortunate this causes them as much trouble as their recent revolutionary search for better government which can give them some prosperity. Though Americans have seen the Israeli-Palestinian 'conflict' for decades they haven't always focused on the surrounding countries.

I think the revolutions are entirely justifiable, though they need resolution and not just continued fighting. Oddly, the Israelis and Palestinians are now in the ideal "fly on the wall" situation to watch how their neighbors in Iraq (first) and Libya and Syria and Egypt handle this. Sure, the religious differences with the Israeli Jews is different than between Islamists and non-religious groups or between the militant jihadists and the non-militants, but leaving that aside there is the immediate forcible change from dictatorship (or monarchy) to something else.

In Iraq America put its feet on the ground and made a mess. Sure, they deposed Saddam Hussein, but they also killed a lot of people when a quicker end to the fighting would have been better. Ignoring that to focus on the present we see the Iraqis are still fighting among themselves and trying to establish some kind of national identity in terms of its international relations: for America's taste they're too close to Iran. Why can't they settle things? Well, how long did it take the Irish and British? Or the countries of the Yugoslav confederation after the Soviet Union fell? Some feuds are very old and some political fights are just very difficult to settle.

Libya seems to have settled down a bit. Certainly we haven't heard much from Tunisia recently. Perhaps the bigger problem for Syria and Iraq are outside influences, the flow of arms and simply the major split in the people in the streets.

In Syria the split is mostly between the powerful Syrian leader Assad and the people who outnumber him, but who are split among themselves and simply don't have as much money & armaments. In Egypt the people are divided and the military is playing an odd role as the third leg of the 3-leg stool. I suspect in Egypt it's the will of the people which will eventually prevail. So far the military hasn't shown much interest in forming a military government. That's good. Hopefully the people will do more than kill one another and will find peace to be preferable. For that to happen they need a government which is not "winner take all" as Morsi appears to have tried to do. This, to me, is one of the best lessons for the Iraqis, Syrians and Israelis & Palestinians to observe.

We in America have a system which, from it's creation, enables all interest groups in the public to have a voice and for those who vote to exercise that from within the halls of Congress or the White House. We don't have winner-take-all government (even in exceptional circumstances) and at times it appears nothing can get done because of that. But, this is as the founders of our government planned. The figured that nothing happening is better than many bad things happening.

I hope the Israelis and Palestinians, in particular, recognize the real experiences they've had with Democratic elements of their governments and can use that to build some kind of long-term peace with a formal arrangement (instead of the current disarrangement). I hope this might even serve as a guide for the other peoples of the Middle East, the Iraqis are close to this, but don't have great experience with multi-group governance. The Egyptians are far from this and need every bit of guidance that can be provided.

The alternative is bloody civil war forever and everyone should view this with horror and a feeling they must seize the moment, recognize the urgency of now, to work quickly toward solutions they can live with.

As always, America stands ready to help anyone who wants peace and prosperity, so I would hope Sec. of State John Kerry and his assistants would be very busy in coming years to work on and solve these problems. Everyone can look to others who have succeeded and build on that experience.